Star Wars - Life of Crime
by CaptainNate21
Summary: Three friends, resorting to a life of crime to escape their home planet, must face the consequences of their actions and try not to let it change them into the monsters they fear.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – The Game of the Drug Trade**

 **Location: Viktu, a major city on Malastare  
Time: 7 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

Ash Ulrand had gotten the routine down, finally, after several weeks. He knew all the best spots, the most inconspicuous, to hide the product he and his friends had worked so hard to get their hands on, spice, specifically a new kind that seemed to have the narcotic effect last several days at a time, and have slightly less bone decay when compared to old spice recipes. While he and his friends wouldn't dare to try it themselves, they could still see it as the valuable commodity it was. The drug market was what kept most of the Outer Rim connected, especially the cities of Malastare, which was what Ash considered home.

 _For now,_ he thought to himself.

Indeed, the life of crime he had made himself a part of was inevitable on this planet. It was the only way to get off it in the first place. If he could have it any other way, he'd be doing something productive with his time, working amongst the big city lights on Coruscant, or exploring the galaxy on a Star Destroyer... but that kind of life was far out of reach until he was able to put in the work to make it a reality. Spice was his ticket off this rock and he knew it.

The twenty year old human, dressed in typical attire for the slum dwelling Malastarian human population, his hair a thick brown mess, made his way down an alleyway. Ash, of the Ulrand family, knew he wasn't going to be doing any good for his family name this way, not until after doing what he had to if he was ever going to see what else was out there.

The garbage bins were the go to method of delivery amongst Ash and his friends. Simply drop the stash into an inconspicuous, yet still identifiable, bag of refuse into a specific bin for the garbage collector, one of their drug mules, to transport all around the city. Ash couldn't take credit for that one, it was the idea of his good friend Bihan Drow, a Verpine who was stuck in the same predicament of being chained to the bottom feeders of Malastare.

Bihan, the tall, lanky insectoid who Ash had known for the better part of his teen years, came around the adjacent alley and tossed his own bag of refuse into one of the containers. He then looked over at Ash and nodded his head. The deal was on, now it was up to the garbage collector to pick up his end of the deal.

Ash left the alley, made his way through the back door of one of the businesses and into the shop, right past uninterested alien figures, unaware of the drug trade going on right in their back yard. He made his way out through the front entrance of the shop, towards the shanty town sector of Viktu, where Ash and his friends lay their heads at night.

Bihan was on his way there as well, but the pair had thought it wise to not be seen going at the same time, plausible deniability or something like that, if Ash was remembering correctly. They had begun to plot out different routes to their part of the shantytown from the area of dealing, trying to beat each other back home each time. The mix of a foot race reminiscent of their childhood along with the setting of a drug deal made for quite the contrast, the irony not lost on Ash, but it helped break up the monotony a bit.

Cutting through the old maze-like alleys, as he had done seemingly a million times, he took comfort in the thought of never having to again in the not too distant future. His home in sight, he quickened his pace, spotting Bihan a bit further back in the distance, seemingly stuck behind a group of slow moving aliens.

Their home, a small one room shack containing one cheap dresser and two bunk beds, was all the luxury Ash and his two best friends could afford. Having built it themselves using scrap from the destroyed hulls of ships from the scrapyard, it taught them quite a bit about surviving in the harshest conditions.

Ash stopped by the entrance of their home, grinning as Bihan finally arrived, a look of defeat on his face.

"I win this time, Bug Brain!" Ash gloated.

"I think not, Ashy Boy!" Art said as he exited the home, "I've been here for the past ten minutes waiting on you two slow pokes!"

Art Regfeld, last but certainly not least in the trio of friends, was a few months older than Ash, and slightly taller. Many assumed the two were brothers, given their history, however this was not the case. Abandoned as a toddler, Art was a product of the poverty of Malastare. His green eyes and buzzcut hairstyle were his most noticeable features, on an otherwise typical slum dwelling human.

"How are we ever gonna get off Malastare with times like that?" Art said with a laugh.

"Don't rub it in, man!" Ash said, admitting defeat to the childish game.

"You sure you weren't followed?" Bihan asked, "Maybe we shouldn't be moving so close into the downtown area..."

"It's the only way we're going to make the big bucks, bud!" Art said with enthusiasm, "Our buyers have been loving the product, word spreads fast, it'll be easier for them to get their hands on it if we sell closer to where they live. We'll never get out of here if we keep selling to the gutter rats right here."

"Easier on our distributor too, less risk." Ash chimed in.

"I'm just saying, it's like you said, word spreads fast, I just wanna make sure it's the right people hearing the word, you know?" the Verpine said.

"We'll be alright man," Art said, "I've been trying to get that old holopad working, it seems to get a faint signal up on the roof."

Curious to see for themselves, the three friends used a crude ladder built into the side of their shack to climb onto their rusted home. They examined the holopad, which Bihan had found tossed aside in the rubbish bins of one of their stash spots. What could it contain? Imperial documents? Thousands of credits? Some dirty holopics? It was the only fun the boys could think to do in their current impoverished state.

"Maybe this is why it got thrown out," Art said, "It's just a piece of junk."

"We might be able to get it fixed in the city." Ash said.

"We should just save our money for our escape." Art reminded.

"Where should we even go when we get off this planet?" Bihan asked, "We always talk about leaving but we never seem to settle on where to go."

"I've heard cool things about Bespin," Ash thought out loud, "or Corellia, met a few guys from there who had nice things to say about it."

"Or we could go to Vorzyd V! Party every day and roll around in credits for the rest of our lives!" Art added.

"Hell, anything beats Malastare. I can't wait to get out of here." Ash said.

"Soon this'll all be a distant memory, bro..." Bihan said, "A few more months of these deals and we'll have enough for the three of us to get out for good!"

"As long as we get to do this together, I don't care where it is." Art stated.

With quite the view of the heavily populated and overcrowded slums ahead of them, and the bustling city of Viktu behind them, the boys tried to imagine what life must be like for the galaxy's more fortunate souls. Somewhere far from the decrepit squalor of this world, where one could make an honest living. It's what kept them going, and this view was their constant reminder of their fate if they were to remain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Wake Up Call**

 **Location: Viktu, a major city on Malastare  
Time: 7 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

Ash made his usual run at the usual time. It had finally become a habit, a routine if you will, which meant that it had been quite some time since he and his friends had started their involvement in this business. To him, it meant that it was nearly time for them to make their exodus from their home planet and onto bigger and better things. He hoped that his involvement in this filthy business was going to be a distant memory in the rear view mirror of his life, far behind him as he jetted off into the future.

The alley behind Jackson's Law Firm was the next spot for a drop. The bar association, completely unaware of the highly illegal activities going on behind their premises, made for the ultimate ironic spot in this case. As Ash made his way towards the drop point, trash bag in hand, he walked over a sewer grate, and looked down to see a dianoga looking up at him. Normally, this would scare anyone out of the alley, but over the course of a few months, Ash and his friends had grown to recognize this dianoga, naming it Crawdad, after a strain of spice that was no longer available on the streets of Viktu.

After leaving Crawdad the dianoga behind, Ash reached the drop point, the dumpster marked with a small blaster burn mark on the side. He tossed the bag inside and continued walking. Turning a corner back onto the road, 13th St, he looked around the area for his friend Bihan, but he was nowhere in sight. Strange, he had been in charge of collecting the payment today, and while being exactly on time every time would be a bit much to expect, he should have at least been able to spot him somewhere. Not this time.

 _Weird,_ Ash thought, _maybe I should go to the payment spot._

Ash made his way to where they had discussed the peggat coins would be stashed at, in the vent opening in the restroom of an old dive bar on 23rd Street. Ash double timed it there and made it within two minutes, still no Bihan in sight. Though outwardly calm and collected, as to not draw attention, inside Ash was very panicked, not sure what could be going on. He made his way into the bar, past dozens of tall aliens, and into the restroom, which was thankfully unoccupied.

Standing on one of the toilets, he reached up at the ceiling and pushed the vent open, feeling around frantically for the coins. Nothing. What could be going on? Ash, Art and Bihan had all left their home at the same time, what could have been the cause of this delay? Could the police have caught onto them and arrested Bihan? What could they possibly do about that? Talk about throwing a wrench in one's plans.

Ash walked out of the restroom and froze only two steps out, realizing that not only was the bar completely silent, and doors locked, but also that all of the patrons were staring at him. These were some damn big aliens, there was no way Ash was going to fight them all by himself, unarmed.

"What's happening, guys?" Ash said in a friendly, but shaky tone, "Look, I'm not the one who did that to your restroom, it was a mess before I got in there."

None of the aliens seemed amused. Not that Ash was surprised. He examined every inch of the room as fast as he could, realizing the only exit he could possibly reach was the front entrance. He didn't trust his panicked mind to be able to push past the aliens and navigate the back area to the exit, so he knew the front door, which was still in eyesight, was his best bet.

He sprinted with every fiber of his being, trying to reach the door. He ducked a Twi'lek's grip and shoved a Devaronian aside as he made his way to the big metal door, and slammed into it hard, but it didn't budge. Before he could figure out the locking mechanism in time, he felt two huge arms seemingly swallow him up, pulling him away from the door with a force he could not fight against. Kicking and cursing out at his captor, he was dragged into one of the back rooms, presumably to avoid those outside from hearing his screams.

Rather than a torture chamber, as he had imagined it would be, instead he saw only a regular looking storage area, regular for a dive bar at least, he assumed. Full metal kegs, plenty of boxes, pipes and terminals, nothing unusual, however, sitting in the center of the room on their knees were Art and Bihan, surrounded by goons armed to the teeth with rifles and metallic blades.

The guard carrying Ash dropped him hard on the ground next to his friends, then sunk back into formation. Ash got ready to stand, but found a rifle barrel pointed right at his face.

"I wouldn't if I were you." the Devaronian said with a grin.

"Boss, last one's here." A Quarren said.

With that, a nasty slithering sound could be heard coming from further away in the storage area, in a smaller room, presumably an office of some sort. Emerging from the small space was a Hutt, a bloated, yellowish creature with horrible glowing orange eyes, which were fixated on the three friends. With a smile that sent shivers down the spines of the young drug dealers, the Hutt completed the semicircle of goons that had formed around them.

"Predictable, so young and stupid..." the Hutt said in a surprisingly decent accent.

"What the hell is going on?" Art asked, fear in his voice.

"You three were selling spice in my territory, that's what is going on, you rodent. I am Kurka the Hutt, the Malastarian spice trade belongs to me. I will not have three wannabe drug lords trying to undercut my profits."

"Hey we didn't know anything about you or your business! We weren't trying to undercut anybody!" Bihan said.

"Yeah, it's our only way of getting off this planet!" Ash added.

"Oh, you're right about one thing, you will be leaving this planet soon enough, trust me." Kurka said, his henchmen chuckling at this.

"We didn't mean any kind of offense to you or your associates, sir." Ash said.

"It matters not. Where were you getting your supply of spice?" Kurka asked.

"We never actually knew his name. He was skittish, said it was because the authorities knew about him and his activities, he didn't want his mules knowing anything about him." Art stated truthfully.

"Is that so?" Kurka said, "Well if that's true, I suppose the three of you are of no use to me."

"No, wait!" Ash said, "Look, if you have to punish anyone, please just punish me. I wanted to push our independent operation into the city so we could accumulate the money faster. I shouldn't have dragged them into this."

"You can't take the fall for this one, bro." Art said, "I wanted to sell over here specifically, I knew some tweekers who said we could make bank over here. If anything, it's my fault we're here."

"Guys, what are you doing?" Bihan asked.

"How touching. Guards... squish that bug."

"NO!" Ash and Art screamed.

The closest guard, a Klatooinian, smacked Bihan in the back of the head with his rifle, knocking the young Verpine face first onto the ground. The guard then proceeded to curb stomp Bihan's head repeatedly, along with a Quarren guard. Ash and Art, with all of their strength, fought against the guards who kept them restrained, screaming and pleading for the guards to stop.

With one final blow of the boot, the dog faced guard crushed Bihan's head into a gory mess, splattering all over his friends and the floor. Kurka, along with the henchmen, erupted into laughter as Ash and Art lay defeated in their spots, tears streaming from their faces as they realized their dreams of exploring the galaxy together were long gone now.

"That is the price you pay for selling in my territory," Kurka began, "You two will have to live with what you did to your friend. You will be a living example of what happens to those who cross me."

"You plan to keep us living?" Art asked, "After what you just did?"

"You might as well kill us." Ash added.

"No... I'm going to let you rot in your decrepit state, stew in the thought of what you just witnessed..." Kurka said menacingly, "You'll start in two days, aboard one of my freighter ships. The two days will be for... processing... guards, take them to the safehouse, quietly."

With that, the guards injected needles into the necks of their captives. Slowly, it took the fight out of the broken, depressed men, who were very unprepared for whatever horrible fate awaited them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – The Ticket Off-World**

 **Location: The Veiled Lady, one of the cargo ships owned by Kurka the Hutt  
Time: 7 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

The horror and immense pain that Bihan's death had brought them had not faded over the course of the three days leading up to this day. The memory of their best friend's final moments continued replaying in their heads over and over again as they carried about their mundane tasks assigned to them by Kurka the Hutt's henchmen. Ash and Art had thought it impossible, a life more degrading than being drug dealing peasants in the slums of Malastare, yet here they were, little more than slaves, the property of a disgusting creature whose influence and reach in the galaxy was that of a cancer.

In the cook room, Ash and Art worked with a few other slaves, manufacturing Kurka's signature drug. This stuff was significantly higher in quality compared to the cheap, thrown together spice that they had been selling back home, and it was partially morbid curiosity to see how it was supposed to be done, despite the circumstances. Ingredients from many worlds, measured, processed, combined together to create the narcotic craze that had swept the galaxy.

Ash and Art were tasked with operating and closely monitoring the filtration process. No unnecessary toxins were to be detected in the final product, under threat of death. With guards closely monitoring each step of the process, it was hard not to feel the gravity of the situation. They were at the forefront of one of the key ingredients in this massive criminal empire, the horrible drug they were making would be distributed to countless beings across the galaxy, profiting that slug that ordered the death of Bihan.

Ash looked over at Art, who was finishing up the process of loading the Brylium wax into the large, metallic filter. Ash could tell, from the look on his friend's face, that he was deep in thought, very distant and cold.

"Hey, what are you thinking about, bro?" Ash quietly asked.

"How we're going to get out of here." Art replied.

Ash paused for a moment. "You know that's not gonna happen, right?" Ash said.

"This is not going to be the rest of our lives, Ash. We're going to get out of this, and we're going to have our revenge." Art stated.

"I'm not saying we'll be here forever, I'm saying we're not masterminds, man. We're not going to break out of here like we're super spies."

Art rolled his eyes and continued the filtration process while Ash began loading one of the batches into the convection oven.

"Oh it's not that bad!" a Chadra-Fan spoke up.

This was the first time any of the other slaves had said anything to Ash and Art. The short, brown furred rodent-like creature looked up at them with a cheeky smile.

"Being a slave isn't that bad?" Ash asked.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Art added.

"Well look at it this way, you don't have any bills to pay, we get to travel the galaxy for free, and there's always something to do!" the Chadra-Fan said cheerfully.

"I gotta say, I wish I had your outlook on life." Ash said.

"We just lost someone to these thugs a few days ago, so forgive us if we have a hard time seeing the uh... bigger picture." Art said.

"Spend enough time here, you'll see it too. I am Tooni." the furry being said.

"Ash Ulrand."

"Art Regfeld. How long you been here?"

"Oh I'd say the better part of three years." Tooni said, "The guards seem to like me because I never cause any trouble!"

"I think your positivity is killing me, Tooni." Art said.

Tooni grinned as she wiped down the plastisteel trays in preparation for the next step in the spice making process. She seemed to beam with pride as the tray seemed to shine in a state of cleanliness, ready to be the platform for the powdered drug to be cooled to perfection. Ash found himself smiling as well, for the first time in a while, watching the cute, bat-faced alien eagerly perform its job.

"The attitude is somewhat infectious." Ash said.

"Now you're killing me." Art said.

"Wrong!" a Nikto merc said as he approached Art, "Not filtered right! See clumps?" the guard said as he pointed a few clumps of black material that had accumulated in the product.

"Alright, I'm sorry!" Art said.

"Do again!" the Nikto shouted as he dumped the raw spice materials on Art's head, "Stop wasting goods!"

"Listen here, you goddamned alien, this is my first time making this shit-" Art began saying before being slapped hard in the face.

Art quickly responded by landing a hard punch to the side of the Nikto's face, knocking him off balance a few steps. Within what seemed like an instant, two other guards jumped in to assist, taking Art to the ground and wailing on him with their clubs and feet.

Terrified at the thought of losing another friend so soon, Ash jumped in to help.

"GET OFF HIM!" Ash shouted as he tried to push one of the guards.

Although he was somewhat expecting it, Ash hadn't anticipated just how hard the guard would swing his elbow right into his face. Ash tumbled backwards, landing hard on the ground where the guard continued his assault on him. Despite the scuffle being over within a matter of seconds, it seemed to drag on for hours as the much heavier guards pummeled the two friends into submission.

"Back to work." one of the guards said as they walked away.

With that, Ash and Art stood back up, bloody and defeated. The other slaves wouldn't look at the two directly, all except Tooni.

"I don't think the guards like you very much." Tooni observed out loud.

"What an astute observation, friend." Ash said.

"If you want to finish up the condensation process, I can make sure the next batch doesn't get those clumps.." Tooni offered, "We can use the scraps left over from the condensating and you can see how I do the filtering."

"That'd be great." Art said through his swollen mouth.

Over the next hour, the two human friends watched as the short Tooni go about her method of perfecting the spice that Kurka the Hutt had made millions off of. They could tell she had many cooks under her belt, every aspect of the spice making process was done with blade-like precision. Ash and Art made careful mental notes, following the Chadra-Fan's lead. Her happy-go-lucky attitude would have made them forget about the beating earlier, had it not been for the throbbing pain that still lingered all over their bruised bodies.

Eventually, the guards decided to call it a night, and sent the slaves to their quarters in the lower levels of the ship, which was probably originally designated to be used as storage for live animals. The slave quarters had been modified to have bunks and tiny, dim lights in the ceilings. Aside from that, there was very little make them feel like anything other than cages.

Ash and Art were given the bunks in the cage adjacent to Tooni and her bunkmate, a rude but quiet Saurin who seemed to sleep just to get away from the Chadra-Fan's overly positive ramblings. Ash and Art lay in their bunks, sore from the beatings and from working in the spice lab all day with no break.

"How did things get so messed up?" Ash asked, "I mean we were set. We had things figured out, we had a plan..."

"We did, but that slime-ball Kurka had other plans..." Art replied, "and I'll make sure he gets what's coming to him."

"Are you gonna take him on, all by yourself?" Ash said.

"If that's what it takes, man. This shit is humiliating." Art said.

"Hey!" Tooni said.

"He doesn't mean any offense, Tooni." Ash said.

"All's I'm saying is, this isn't going to be what the rest of our lives look like. We'll be free one day, and we have to be ready for it when that day comes." Art said.

"I hope you're right, bro..." Ash said, "I'm gonna try and get some sleep, man, you should too."

"Yeah, good idea." Art said as he rolled over onto his side.

Art couldn't go to sleep though. All he could see was red as he stewed on the thought of Bihan's death. He wanted to wrap his hands around Kurka's fat throat and choke the life out of him. Murderous thoughts kept him awake, fueled his motivation as he daydreamed about breaking out of the ship, tracking down the Hutt and finalizing his revenge. All the while, Ash drifted to sleep, trying to make it through to the next day, and the next...


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Gimme Liberty, I'll Give Them Death.**

 **Location: The Veiled Lady, Kurka the Hutt's primary spice manufacturing ship.  
Time: 5 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

It had been two years of servitude onboard Kurka's private cargo ship. Two long years of manufacturing that slob's narcotics, of being subject to beatings and humiliation from guards, of being denied basic sentient rights. Quite enough to drive anyone mad. Ash and Art had been there long enough to blend in with the rest of the slaves, filthy, hunched and miserable. All except for Tooni of course, still cheerful as ever.

"One more rack ought to do it." Art said as he finished up his step in the process.

Ash, Tooni and a Saurin slave worked together to speed up the cooking process. All the while, they could practically feel the cold, uncaring glares of the guards watching their every move. They knew better than to make prolonged eye contact with them, as the guards took that as time spent not working. But every now and then, Art would look back at them, very briefly, attempting to communicate non-verbally his complete and utter hatred of the henchmen. If looks could talk, that's what his would say at least.

"Don't piss them off again, man." Ash said.

"They don't need to feel threatened, I'm unarmed and malnourished." Art replied.

"It's not about feeling threatened, it's about respect with those brutes. It'll provoke them." Ash reminded.

"I just really hate them. We've been here way too long, and I swear, Tooni, if you say something about how it's not really all that bad..."

"I wasn't going to! I'm trying to give you some space!" Tooni said.

"We should just bum rush these pricks, get 'em when they're not expecting it." Art suggested.

"I don't like violence..." Tooni said.

"You're too small anyway," Art said, "but the rest of us..."

"You know eventually they're going to get fed up with you and just waste you. It's not enough I lost Bihan, I don't want them to kill you too." Ash said.

"It'd almost be better than being their property." Art said as he sunk back into place, finishing up the batch.

"Hey," Ash said as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "there's going to be an after. I just don't want what's happened to ruin you. We've been through so much, man, but we've got to be able to come back from it."

"I hope we can, bro." Art said with a glimmer of hope.

About half an hour later, the slaves finished up the day's work. The henchmen all walked around the stations, inspecting them for debris, waste, imperfections and the like. By now, the slaves had it all down perfectly, but it didn't stop the grunts from doing their obnoxiously thorough quality checks. Once that was complete, they ushered the dozen or so slaves back to their quarters.

"Faster." a Nikto guard said as he shoved Art.

Ash caught ever so briefly a murderous look in Art's eye, and made direct eye contact with him and shook his head, trying to get his friend to avoid showing any sign of rebellion. Art swallowed his hate and moved on, what was left of his pride long gone. Ash knew it was difficult but it was the only way to stay alive.

With their tiny cages in sight, the slaves prepared for yet another night. However, everyone, including the guards, came to a halt as the ship very clearly rattled quite strongly, a metallic echo shimmering through the floor and walls. Several seconds later, the alarm began to blare through the halls, a shrill mechanical wailing accompanied by a pale yellow light flashing.

Just as suddenly, and also just as unexpected, Art took the opportunity to spin around and clock the Nikto guard in the face, knocking him out cold and catching his rifle before it could hit the ground. In what all seemed like an instant, Art angrily mowed down two other guards with the rifle, screaming in a primal way that seemed to have been held in since his day of enslavement.

A Gamorrean guard nearby prepared to swing his vibro-axe at Art, but not before Ash and the other slaves tackled the guard to the ground, realizing Art had taken the initiative they had been secretly hoping for. As they took turns pummeling the pig-faced guard to death, Ash looked over to see his friend had swiped one of the guard's knives and was stabbing the unconscious Nikto guard in the throat.

 _Can't see Kurka letting this incident slide,_ Ash thought as he resumed stomping the Gamorrean to death.

Art, already covered in blood, continued the brutally stab the Nikto over and over again.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT?!" Art shouted.

"Dude, he's dead, we gotta keep going!" Ash said as he pulled his friend off the mangled corpse, "Everyone grab a weapon, they still outnumber us!"

The other slaves scrambled to snatch up the weapons dropped by the now deceased henchmen. Tooni took several steps back, a terrified look on her bat-like face.

"This is horrible! I don't want any part in this!" she said.

"Stay in your quarters, then!" Ash said, "Everyone else, let's show these guys who we are!"

"Where should we go?" a Duros slave asked.

"The armory, we'll load up on guns and grenades, destroy what we can't carry so that the bastards can't use them against us. I say we hit the guard's quarters after that." Art thought out loud.

"But you don't even know why the alarms are going off in the first place!" Tooni shouted as she headed back to her quarters.

She was right, and they knew it. While the alarms had been their saving grace, any number of things could have triggered the alarms, whether it was a breach in one of the windows, pirates, a fire, or a chemical leak, the six escaped slaves had no idea what they were about to get into.

"We can figure it out as we go." Art said, leading the way down the hall.

It didn't take long for the slaves to encounter more of the crew, two human henchmen, clearly unprepared for the sight of escaped and armed slaves. Before they could react, both guards were gunned down by Art and one of the other slaves, pummeling them with blaster fire and leaving their charred remains on the ship's floor as they continued towards the armory.

More guards came storming down the hall towards the slaves, clearly ready for a fight. With little cover and no escape routes, the slaves had no choice but to oblige them. Dropping to one knee, Art steadied his aim as best he could and opened fire alongside his comrades. Ash hoped that their numbers and fury would make up for their lack of combat experience.

Blaster fire flew through the halls, zipping past the combatants in a dazzling and deadly light show. The Duros slave collapsed, three blaster bolts all striking him in the chest simultaneously. With little time to mourn their ally, the slaves pressed on their attack, quickly cutting down the remaining guards in this section of the ship. The carnage now littered the floor of this once grand ship, the smell of burned skin and ozone rich in the air as the slaves finally reached the armory. Dozens of rifles, blaster pistols, packs of ammunition, and thermal detonators lay before them, a freedom fighter's candy store.

As the eager slaves loaded up on their new equipment, the loudspeakers all rang out with the sound of an impending announcement.

"This is Admiral Talbot of the Imperial Navy..." a human voice said over the speakers, "This ship and its contents are now property of the Galactic Empire. You are to stand down and submit to Imperial custody, or be destroyed."

"The authorities! They've taken the bridge! We're saved!" the Saurin slave said.

"Don't be so sure, to them we're part of the crew on an illegal spice ship." Art reasoned.

"That's right, they're probably going to shoot first and ask questions later, if they even bother to ask." Ash added.

"Well at least we'll have some help in taking these guys out." Art said as he walked out of the armory.

With that, the remaining slaves carried their gear out and left the armory, with still a handful of weapons and munitions on the shelves. Ash activated one of his thermal detonators and tossed it into the armory. With a nod towards Art, the group hurried down the hall towards the guard's quarters, away from the massive explosion in the armory, a slightly dulled thud which sent a heavy vibration through their section of the ship.

Reaching the entrance to the henchmen quarters, Art didn't even wait for the door to finish opening up all the way, ducking beneath the still moving door and opening fire on everyone in sight. Having not anticipated such a tenacious assault on their own quarters from the very beings they'd kept in servitude for years, the guards were unprepared as they fumbled for their weapons amid the gunfire. The other slaves rushed in behind Art to carry on the assault, blasting their former masters to bits as the alarms continued ringing.

Some of the guards made their way out of the quarters through the other exits, but most found themselves pinned down in cover behind beds and crates, lest they catch a blaster bolt or two in the face. Spotting two guards crouched behind a crate, Ash tossed a thermal detonator after them, then gunned down the guard attempting to flee from it, with the explosion vaporizing the other.

Within two minutes, the slaves had butchered the guards who stayed in their quarters to fight. As they examined and relished in the violence they had unleashed, the remaining slaves could hear a firefight going on several halls down. It had to be the surviving guards and the Imperials.

"Sounds like the Imps are gonna have our scraps." Ash said.

"I say we take them all out." Art offered.

"Hey, taking out these scumbags is one thing, but the Imperials have an army." Ash reminded.

"Well we're gonna die either way!" Art said as he hurried towards the fight.

"He's enjoying this way too much." an Arcona slave said.

"Agreed. He's gonna need our help though." the Saurin slave said.

The slaves rushed after their friend, who was already at the other end of the hall and fighting in a three way battle. They took cover behind a fallen pillar, with the Imps using mobile cover they had probably brought on-board with them, and the remaining slavers using steel tables as flimsy cover, cowering as they no doubt accepted their fates. As one of the slavers had a blaster shot crack his head open, the last two tossed their guns aside and stood up, hands raised, and faced the Imperials.

"We're done, we surrender!" they shouted, terrified.

"Go to hell, all of you!" Art said as he fired away, killing the two surrendering slavers.

Art was clearly no marksman, or an experienced shooter at that, but Ash could tell his friend was having the most fun he'd had in years. Hell, he earned it. But as the stormtroopers opened fire on the slaves, Ash knew that eventually the Imperials would overpower them with their numbers and superior combat training. Art seemed more determined than ever to go down fighting, but Ash was having second thoughts.

 _Not how I expected this day to go, not at all..._ Ash thought to himself.

"Art!" Ash shouted.

"Yeah?!" Art shouted back, his ears probably ringing from all the gunfire.

"Look, maybe we should surrender. If we try to fight the Imps, then we'll definitely be shot. If we surrender, there's at least a chance we make it off this ship alive!"

"Why don't we go for the escape pods?" the Saurin slave asked.

"No, the Imps will just shoot them down. At least here we have a fighting chance!" Art said.

"Yeah until they decide to scuttle the ship." a Bith slave said.

"There's too much evidence on this ship, they won't risk losing it." Ash said.

The slaves tried, in vain, to return fire on the stormtroopers, only to find their numbers dwindling as they were cut down by rapid and precise blaster bolts. One by one they were struck down, until within a few moments, only Ash and Art remained to fight.

"Get down, NOW!" one of the soldiers shouted.

"Shut up!" Art said as he stood his ground.

"I'll blow you away! Get on the goddamn ground!" another one barked.

"Get down, Art, you dumbass!" Ash said as he laid down his weapon.

"We can't just give up!" Art said.

"Freedom was nice while it lasted." Ash said under his breath.

Ash put his friend in a choke hold, a move that caught Art off guard, forcing him to drop his weapon. The two dropped to the ground, with Ash refusing to loosen his grip around Art's neck.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Art shouted.

"Saving your life!" Ash yelled back.

Before Art could fall unconscious, the stormtroopers arrived on scene, pulling the two off one another and cuffing each of them, hands behind their backs.

"Sorry man." Ash said.

"It's alright, I get it." Art replied with a chuckle.

With that, the stormtroopers forcefully brought the two slaves to their feet and led them to the Imperial cruiser. Thankful to still be alive, but unsure of their destination or fate, the two lifelong friends had little choice other than to follow the white clad warriors off the ship.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – Desolation Alley**

 **Location: Oovo IV, Imperial Maximum Security Prison in the Outer Rim  
Time: 5 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

It only took the Imperials three weeks to sentence Ash Ulrand and Art Regfeld to fifteen years in prison for their alleged involvement in Kurka the Hutt's highly illegal spice empire, and for multiple counts of murder and resisting arrest. Their claims of literally being enslaved and reduced to cogs in a drug making machine fell on deaf ears, with the prosecution eager to make more progress on cracking down in the Outer Rim drug trade.

Although their current predicament seemed the opposite of fortunate, Ash and Art were among only three survivors on the Veiled Lady, the other being Tooni, whose fate was unknown to the two friends. She'd been dragged off to another ship and likely sentenced somewhere else far away, though it was unlikely she saw it as anything other than another fun adventure.

 _How nice that must be,_ Ash thought to himself as he sat in his cell.

This was the first time that Ash and Art had ever been locked up for anything. They'd gotten by, very luckily, in their old spice dealing days, they never had to spend even a minute behind bars. This was the real deal, they'd be spending quite some time with some very dangerous and hardened criminals, on a desolate and harsh moon no less.

Oovo IV wasn't nearly as bad as Kessel, at least here one could actually hope to survive the duration of their prison sentence. That's not saying much, though, as riots were not a rare occurrence in the site's history, and its relatively easily accessible location made it a prime target for anyone looking to bust a high profile criminal out of the box. It was a huge facility that dated back to the days of the Republic, but, like most things these days, it had devolved and its conditions worsened under the Empire. Corruption, killings, extortion, drugs, all rampant through every cell block in the facility.

Art had wasted no time in getting acquainted with the other inmates. It had only been about a month, and he already had himself a small crew. It wasn't a network or anything, at least it wasn't yet, but it was enough to have them keep an eye on Ash, to make sure nobody tried to hurt him. The two friends found themselves on opposite sides of the same cell block, and had tried to remain in as much contact with one another as possible in such a controlled environment like prison.

The cell that Ash now called home was about eight foot by eight foot, with a dull, depressing shade of faded tan on the walls and a dimming light in the corner of the ceiling. Aside from the toilet and the two beds, there was very little for him to call his own. In his cramped cell, Ash sat in his bed, reading one of the holo-books from the prison library. It was slim pickings there, very slim, but he was to happy to have anything to do other than just sit and rot the whole fifteen years. On the other side of the room, Ash's roommate, a Rodian named Kai, was up to the same thing.

Standing a few hairs taller than Ash, Kai was a very typical looking Rodian, green bumpy skin, starry looking eyes, and a distinct scent that reminded Ash of a faint burned plastic. He'd been locked up for his involvement with the Rebellion, apparently some of it was classified, so he wasn't allowed to share many stories with his cellmate. A little rough around the edges at times, given his past, but Ash thought it somewhat nice to have another green counterpart to spend his days with.

"Huh, did you know that in Gundark tribes, the female is the leader of the pack?" Kai asked.

"I didn't know that, does it say that in your holo-book?" Ash replied.

"Yep. It's one of those nature books. It's alright I guess." Kai said as he turned off the reader.

"When do you think they're going to give us some real holo-books?" Ash asked.

"Probably the same day they decide to serve us real food..." Kai said as he stood up, "Speaking of which..."

Ash figured his friend had seen the black clad and visored guards approach the staircases on each end of the cell block. The cell doors all slid open in unison, the routine that had become all too familiar in his month of prison.

"Chow time, dirt bags!" one of the guards called out from down the steps.

Ash and Kai, along with the other prisoners in their cell block, stepped out of their cages and stretched very briefly, having spent the rest of their day in a box that would be cramped for one person, let alone two. Ash looked across to the other side of the block, and nodded at Art. In single file lines, the prisoners were funneled down the stairs and into the cafeteria, with several armed guards lining the walls, their watchful eyes covered by those black visors.

One by one, the orange jumpsuit clad prisoners of all kinds of species and walks of life went down the line for their rations. When it came time for Ash's turn, the usual kind of pale slop thing was plopped onto his brittle metal tray. It only got less appetizing as the days went on, but what was the alternate, to starve? As a matter of fact, there were a handful of prisoners who had, and the guards couldn't have been bothered to do anything about it.

Ash made his way to the table where Art, Kai and several others had lay claim to. There was Decimus, a burly, gruff looking Quara Aqualish who had made a name for himself in the prison as a bodyguard for anyone who could afford it. His current client was Koorivar next to him, Qotak, who also happened to be Art's cellmate. Qotak had been busted guarding one of Black Sun's many spice freighters, a very hot one at that, hot enough to land him in this place.

"Sup." Art said as his friend sat down.

"Hey." Ash replied.

"It's a good thing you just got here, I have something to tell you all." Art began.

"Oh man, does it have to do with Volt?" Kai asked.

"As a matter of fact, it does..." Art continued, "See, he hasn't taken a liking to our... aggressive expansion in this prison. This morning his crew jumped Moloch, only let him live so he could be a living message to us to back off, or something like that."

"He's recuperating in his cell right now, old lizard's a mess." Boelo, a fellow human inmate, chimed in.

"That's right," Art said, "Volt's a Noghri, he's got some kind of code of honor, he's not gonna just kill one of us right off the bat. Next time, though, I'm not so sure. I say we get the jump on him and his boys before that can happen."

"Hey man, do we really need to do that?" Ash asked, "I mean how big are you trying to make this gang of ours?"

"We need as many of the other inmates on our side as possible. The fewer guys we have backing us up, the bigger targets we are. It's how we're gonna make it through our sentences. Volt knows about us, Ash, how we were slaves before this, he thinks that makes us weak, in over our heads. That overconfidence is what's gonna put him down." Art said.

"So are we going to kill anyone who we think might be allied with Volt?" Ash asked.

"That's kind of how it works, man. You feel bad for these shitheads or something?" Art asked.

"Not really, but don't you think the guards are going to crack down on us murdering other inmates?" Ash replied.

"He's got a point, I mean isn't that what they're here for?" Kai added.

"As long as they don't feel threatened themselves, we can get away with it. They're not here for our safety." Art stated.

"How do you know that?" Kai asked.

"Boelo, you've been here the longest out of all of us, why don't you tell us?" Art asked.

"The gangs here have been killing each other since the days of the Republic. I've seen it a ton of times, guys getting shanked, beaten to death, set on fire, choked out, any horrible way to go that you can think of. The guards don't seem to care all that much, it's not like they're the ones in danger." Boelo said.

"So why don't all the gangs just start killing each other? What are they all waiting for?" Ash asked.

"Like I said, the guards only intervene when they feel like their safety or the facility are in danger. An all out gang war fits that description pretty well, and everyone here knows it." Boelo said.

"Think about it man, Oovo IV is up there in high security prisons, they put people here that have connections with the rebels, the underworld, and they put killers here. This isn't a jailhouse on Coruscant, or one of the prisons on Corellia, this is where they put the undesirables. We kill each other off, we're doing them a favor." Art added.

"Alright then, so what's the plan?" Ash asked begrudgingly.

Several hours later, in the recreational yard, the prisoners were given the last bit of free range of the day, albeit still confined within the prison walls. The rec area was a large auditorium sized room with bright lights and cameras aimed everywhere, cold steel floors and nearly indestructible and pressurized windows providing a view of the bleak, inhospitable and rocky terrain of Oovo IV outside.

The rec yard at this time was bustling, it was one of the only times that prisoners from other cell blocks were able to congregate. No matter what, nobody could be seen sitting around doing nothing, there was plenty of time for that in their cells. Some prisoners spent their time here lifting weights, practicing various sports, congregating with their respective gangs, but not Ash and his friends, not this time. It was time to set their plan in motion. Amongst the hundreds of prisoners walking around everywhere, Ash and Kai were able to blend in to avoid detection from Volt's crew.

Boelo was in his position, making a deal with some potential new clients in their drug trading. Technically, because these new clients were from another cell block, they were supposed to be Volt's customers, and that's exactly what Art had been hoping they'd notice.

Sure enough, a Mon Calamari bodyguard spotted this activity and split off from the rest of Volt's gang, taking a Kiffar henchman with him towards the buy. As Ash saw this, still in cover behind several other unaware inmates, he turned to Art and nodded, the signal that they were waiting for.

Art was positioned by the weights, where another member of Volk's gang was working out, lifting a huge barbell on one of the benches. He stayed behind the gangster, this one a human, out of his field of view. Art carefully lifted one of the smaller weights up off the rack and smashed it into the unsuspecting henchman's head, making the man lose his grip on his own weight and drop it onto his neck.

At the same time, the Mon Calamari and Kiffar were about to break up the buy that Boelo was at, but were intercepted by Decimus and Qotak, both armed with shanks. The fish faced alien cried out in agony as the shank from Decimus plunged into his side, while Qotak slit the throat of the Kiffar henchman.

Dazed and weakened by the blow to the head, the human henchman was unable to fight back as Art put all his might onto the barbell that was pinning the man's neck to the bench. Two more members of Volt's gang rushed towards the commotion, unsure what exactly to do in this situation. Emerging suddenly from the crowds, Ash and Kai both impaled their targets using their own shivs.

Ash's target, a Tognath, screamed as the back of his neck was pierced by Ash's shiv. This time was different from their escape on the Veiled Lady, when they were killing slavers. These were fellow inmates. Ash felt nauseous as he proceeded to finish off the Tognath by jamming the shiv into the side of the alien's head, feeling he had accomplished nothing by doing so. As Kai finished off his own target, Ash could see a similar look of shock on the Rodian's face.

"You okay?" Ash asked wearily.

"Yeah, I guess so." Kai replied.

The two looked over at Art, who had just finished using the barbell to choke the human henchman to death. He seemed to relish in the chaos, like he was at peace in it. Gone was the look of the former slave, he seemed to fit right in with whatever this was now. Uneasy, Ash and Kai headed towards Art, as did Boelo, Decimus and Qotak.

"See, what'd I tell ya?" Art said, "The guards couldn't care less."

"Seems like you could care less too, bro..." Ash said, "We just killed a shit ton of people."

"It's a dog eat dog world here, Ashy Boy, kill or be killed." Art proclaimed.

Just then, a snaggletoothed Snivvian approached, one of Qotak's contacts in another cell block. Clearly disturbed by the carnage around him, he stepped around the bodies and avoided the puddles of blood and made it to the group.

"We have Volt and one of his men, they tried to flee, just like you said they would." the Snivvian said.

"Excellent, let's finish this." Art said as he followed the Snivvian towards the exit.

Ash and Kai looked at each other, not eager for the bloodshed to continue. Nothing could change what had just taken place, five people just lost their lives over a turf dispute. However, there was still time to fix what was about to happen. Art and his gang didn't have to push through the crowds of inmates this time, they parted as the gang got closer, allowing free passage to their final targets. They now had the attention of the other prisoners, and surely the guards as well.

Three other prisoners had Volt and one of his Weequay henchmen down on their knees, in preparation for execution.

"Hey." Art said with a smile.

"You killed my men," Volt muttered, "we only beat your Trandoshan friend to send a message."

"Yeah, well we **killed** your men to send a message. Only it wasn't to you, because you'll be joining them real soon." Art said as he raised his shank high in the air and swung it down.

"WAIT!" Ash shouted as he grabbed Art's arm mid-swing.

"What the hell, man?" Art said as he looked back at his friend, bewildered.

"We made our point, man, we don't have to kill them all, right?" Ash asked.

"This isn't over til we put this guy in the ground, he attacked our people." Art said.

"He still has connections, he can be useful!" Ash said, "Look, you want blood, but we got it already. Message received, right Volt?"

"Thought it wasn't for me." Volt replied.

"It can be," Ash continued, "People are going to be afraid to work with us if we just keep butchering people who fall in with the wrong crew, but if we bring in Volt and the rest of his guys that we didn't just kill, they'll see we're willing to act like professionals. Isn't that what this is about, getting respect? Feeling safe?"

"I suppose so..." Art said as he pondered his friend's words, "Alright Volt, today's the luckiest day of your life. People are tired of you being top dog in here, it wasn't hard to find the help we needed to pull this off. We've come to relinquish you of your place at the top of Oovo IV. Don't worry, though, Ash here has ensured that you'll still have a place here. You still have a handful of guys left, yeah? You can still be their boss, but you work for us now. Go."

Art's gangsters loosened their grips on Volt and his Weequay associate, allowing them to leave in peace. Although proud that he was able to talk some sense into his friend and spare more needless bloodshed, Ash was still unable to shake the feeling that he was reliving the death of Bihan, only this time from the other side, the oppressor.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – We Won't Go Quietly**

 **Location: Oovo IV, Imperial Maximum Security Prison in the Outer Rim  
Time: 4 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

The year spent on Oovo IV had shown Ash and Art that the weak were filtered out, killed and taken advantage of by those who had the power. It wasn't about adapting to prison, no, give anyone enough time in these walls and they could do it. This was about making prison adapt to you. Owning other inmates, hell, owning guards. Having a say in what comes in and out of the facility, drugs, weapons, you name it. Oovo IV was the ultimate social experiment, a snapshot of what the rest of the galaxy was full of, people fighting their way to the top, no matter the cost.

Today was the day. The day the inmates had been dreaming of since their incarceration. With the right connections, the right timing, the planets seemed to align in the perfect storm. Art had made himself, along with two other cunning inmates, a chief architect in one of the most elaborate and violent prison escape plans the galaxy had ever seen. Lying in wait, all those months, those grueling months of hard labor, horrible food, mundane tasks, and the unbearable boredom of one's cell, all leading up to this.

Most of the scrutiny from the guards came during the prisoners' time in the cafeteria and in the rec yards, when they were allowed to roam around and converse with one another. It made it more than a little difficult to make business arrangements happen during these times. Due to this, the prisoners from all different cell blocks devised a primitive but effective means of transporting goods and messages without as much of the risk of being caught. Bed sheets were torn up and tied together to make ropes, which could be flung across far distances or to cells below, with their intended items attached. This was their first step in the plan.

Some of the prisoners were going to be the have-nots of this day, certainly not everyone could get what they wanted. By now, most of the prisoners had been made aware of the soon-to-be riot, but not all. A Bith named G'ont had been in the hole for a few weeks, and was already making enemies within these walls. He had a small crew scattered through the different cell blocks, and was well known for cheating inmates on their drugs and for ratting out others to the guards. The consensus amongst the rest of the prison's population was to volunteer G'ont and his men to lay their pathetic lives down for the rest to make their escape.

Using the previously mentioned delivery system, deals were cut with G'ont's crew for a big drug deal that would span all of Oovo IV. However, the packages delivered wouldn't exactly be the kind of spice they were hoping to receive. To Ash, it seemed somewhat wrong, however he knew that if someone had to go, it might as well be them. He'd convinced Art to spare the life of Volt at the beginning of their imprisonment, and now that same prisoner was one of Art's closest associates in this grand scheme.

The other prisoners, several thousand of them, from many different species and walks of life, sat in their cells, anticipating the commencing of the first step in the riot. They'd all know it the second it went down, there was no mistaking it. Ash and Kai were ready, but extremely nervous and unsure of their fates.

"This is it, man." Kai said, hands shaking in anticipation.

"Stick with the plan, and we'll be alright..." Ash reassured his friend, "When we link up with Art and the others, they'll get us through the rest of the plan. If anyone can successfully break out of prison, it's Decimus and his guys."

"Yeah, you're right..." Kai said.

"You still thinking about getting back with the Rebellion after this?" Ash asked.

"If there **is** an after this. I was up all night thinking about it. The Rebellion stood for what was good, but a lot can change in a year, who knows if they still fight with honor and dignity? I've been so preoccupied with this plan of escape that I haven't had much time to think about continuing my career with the Alliance." Kai said.

"There'll be plenty of time to figure that out once we're free." Ash said with a smile.

The signal came very suddenly, funny, the prisoners had all been expecting it, knew what it was to sound like, but to actually hear it was a completely different thing. It made their plans so real. Throughout the different cell blocks, the prisoners had attached improvised explosive devices to the ropes and had them delivered to G'ont and his men under the guise of them being shipments of drugs. Simultaneously, the explosives detonated, killing off the spineless and untrustworthy Bith and his men, but more importantly, triggering the fire suppression system that had been installed in the time of the Republic.

All of the cell doors slid open in unison, much to the shock and horror of the guards, who realized that the monsters they'd kept in line for so many years were now all free, every single one of them, and that not one of them had surrender on their minds as they stormed out of their cells, ready for blood. Ash and Kai rushed out of their cell, knowing full well that no matter the outcome, they wouldn't be returning. They spotted Art and his men amongst the chaos, making their stand against the extremely unprepared squad of guards who acted as the prison's first line of defense.

In a move that reminded Ash greatly of their fight on the Veiled Lady, he and Kai rushed to aid Art in the fight, punching and kicking the guards into submission. It felt good, the guards weren't nearly as intimidating when they were being swarmed by bloodthirsty criminals. The orange jumpsuit clad inmates quickly pummeled the first batch of guards to death within a matter of seconds.

"This is it, bro!" Art said with a grin.

"Just like old times." Ash replied.

Moloch, the group's Trandoshan friend, entered the fray as well, armed with a bloodied shank.

"It is great to finally fight by your side, my friends..." Moloch said, "This is the day I've been waiting for."

"Indeed, and to think this is what it took for us to truly come together and break our former rivalries." Volt said as he too appeared on scene.

"Officer Higg should be here with the munitions any moment now." Qotak said.

"Officer Higg? The crooked guard? What the hell does he have to do with this?" Kai asked.

"He's our inside man, we were able to bribe him with some help from Black Sun..." Art said, "He's the one that gave us this chance. He's supplying us with the weapons we'll need! Ah, here he is!"

Flanked by two of his more trusted corrupt guards, the middle aged Officer Higg entered the cell block pushing a crate full of weapons straight from the armory. Stacked full all the way to the top with assault rifles, pistols and batons, this was exactly what turned their plan from a dream into a real possibility. Higg, who had sympathies with the Rebellion, decided to become a prison guard to undermine the Empire's authority over some of the Alliance's members who were incarcerated at Oovo IV, making him the perfect catalyst for this riot.

"Load up, boys, the rest of the guards will be far more prepared than these guys were." Higg said as he helped the prisoners unload the weapons.

"We'll have to kill the ones who get in the way," Art said, "you're okay with that?"

"Damn straight." Higg said.

"Alright, let's get moving! We've got a time table here that we can't mess around with!" Art said as he and the other prisoners stormed out of the cell block, Ash and Kai close behind.

With the help of Higg, the tactics of the guards were far easier to counter. The prisoners barged into the cafeteria, which was still in the process of being locked down and fortified. The unprepared guards were forced to make do with the progress they'd made as the prisoners began their assault, laser bolts flying from both sides. Bodies collapsed all around, but the prisoners' daunting numbers made their casualties less of an impact on their chances. Ash and Kai took the right flank, while the intimidating Decimus and his men took the left flank, using plenty of cover to maneuver around the guards and blast them from behind their ranks. They were making good on time, their numbers still looking good, and with plenty of dead guards, things were so far, so good. The cafeteria was a mess of blaster burns, corpses and debris. Scavenging the body armor and weapons from the dead guards, the prisoners made their way to the next section of Desolation Alley.

"How you holding up?" Art asked.

"Hanging in there, you?" Ash asked his two friends.

"Never better." Art said with a smile.

"Feels like my days in the Rebellion, only not with the noblest bunch of fighters." Kai said.

"Heard that." Decimus, the towering Aqualish, said as he walked by.

"No offense, Decimus!" Kai said with a nervous laugh.

"We'd best keep going, the other guards have had more time to dig in to their posts." Boelo said.

"He's right, the hardest part has yet to come!" Higg said.

With that, the merry band of killers used their might to breach the blocked doors of the cafeteria and into the halls, where they opened fire on the heavily dug in guards. The guards were now using heavy duty riot gear, including energy shields, single-personnel walkers, and heavy repeater cannons. They hadn't made it easy on the prisoners, minimizing the amount of cover on the inmates' side while maintaining their foothold on their own side.

A hailstorm of energy blasts flew towards the prisoners. Shoving Ash into cover and exposing himself to the gunfire, Moloch returned fire with his automatic rifle, determined to take as many of them down as he could. Within a matter of moments, however, the Trandoshan crashed to the ground, having caught a shot to the neck. Ash quickly lifted the lizard's head, trying in vain to clear the dying prisoner's airway. Moloch tried with what little life he had left in him to speak, but couldn't form the words. Instead, a frail gasp escaped his lips as the light faded from his eyes and his head slumped back, dead.

"I'm sorry, Ash..." Volt said, "I want you to know that what my people and I did to him, when we beat him all those months ago, it was nothing personal to Moloch. He was an excellent fighter and I admired him."

"Thank you." Ash said quietly.

"Should have stayed in your cells, scum!" a guard barked.

Perhaps out of a need for retribution, or perhaps out of desperation, Ash and Volt fired from behind cover madly, knowing full well the odds of actually hitting their enemies this way were quite low, but the suppressing fire would surely aid the other prisoners who had a much greater position in which to attack.

It seemed that at least one prisoner would die every second, collapsing from the barrage of blaster bolts fired mercilessly by the Imperial guards. To these dead prisoners, the fight was now over, but to their brethren, their deaths only fueled their rage and desire to escape. The small walker in particular was quite the nuisance, being too heavily armored to be taken down by small arms fire, and firing so quickly that it seemed to cut through the prisoners like butter.

"Surrender now and you will be spared." an Imperial guard called out over the prison's intercom system.

"Shut it, you bloody fierfeks!" Volt called out as he reloaded his blaster rifle.

The fight would have been over in a matter of moments, but Higg had informed the prisoners that in the event of a full scale riot such as this, the guards were trained to flank through the different entrances of the cafeteria to cut off the prisoners' escape if they were to fall back. Having anticipated this, the prisoners waited for the guards to make their move, and when they did, they sprung a trap of their own, mowing down the guards who had attempted to sneak behind their ranks.

With the bout of confidence they needed, the prisoners were able to push through the guards' defenses, cutting them down without mercy. The injured guards were quickly stabbed and beaten to death by the bloodthirsty inmates. The walker, however, still remained active, and continued blasting holes in the frenzied inmates. Using the others as his living shields, Decimus charged towards the walker, eventually making his way past its cannons. He leapt onto the walker and pounded on the cockpit's hatch with all his might, screaming like a madman. It didn't take long for it to give way, showering the pilot with glass and metal debris. Decimus proceeded to drag the pilot out and toss him onto the cold, metal floor. Jumping from on top the walker, the heavy Aqualish crashed right on top of the pilot, who screamed in agony as his attacker proceeded to tear the man's arm out of its socket and smash him in the face with it.

The other prisoners looked on, some with looks of horror, some with looks of encouragement, as Decimus raised his foot and brought it down on the pilot's head, squishing it into oblivion. They had done it, the best fighting force Oovo IV had to offer, laid to waste by their former captives, but only at a great cost. The dead bodies of the prisoners piled up so high that those who remained had to literally climb over them to continue the fight.

"Damn..." Ash said as he looked around at the carnage, "this is the price of freedom I guess."

"We've got this, boys!" Art said as he finished off a guard with a shot to the face.

"It's a straight shot to the ships from here!" Higg said.

"What about the other halls? There's like three more corridors we'll have to clear!" Boelo wondered out loud.

"Not anymore," one of Higg's men spoke up, "we depressurized the path ahead, the guards that were in there are surely dead."

"That's right, all we have to do is restore atmospheric pressure and make it to the ships!" Higg said, "The only section ahead we didn't have the clearance to depressurize was the barracks, that'll be the last shot the Imps have of stopping us."

"Well alright then, let's get moving, we're so close!" Qotak shouted.

Hurrying down the halls and into the next section of the prison, Ash could see that indeed the guards here had all been killed quite suddenly, quick yet horrifying deaths from being exposed to the harsh, airless climate of Oovo IV. Their corpses lined the halls, trampled by the prisoners as they continued on their way, ready for their taste of freedom.

With Higg leading the way, Ash and the other prisoners came upon a massive room that seemed to power most of the facility. A massive metallic structure with an eerie green glow was the center piece of this section, long walkways connecting the different sections of the prison to this structure were going to be their ticket out of here.

Stepping over more of the guards' corpses, Higg waited until everyone was on the walkways before activating them. The ground shifted slightly under their feet as the walkways began to rise up several stories. The prisoners all looked around, hoping that thinking about the platforms rising up faster would actually make them do so. As it climbed up the stories, inching closer and closer to their freedom, they were able to breathe for the first time since the riot began.

"You've all fought well," Volt commended, "I am proud to fight alongside the lot of you, my brothers."

"You too, Volt." Art replied with a smile.

"We just might pull this off..." Kai said with a glimmer of hope in his starry eyes, "we might actually get out of here!"

"Of course we will, bro." Ash said as he put his hand on the Rodian's shoulder, "these Imps made a mistake thinking they could keep us down for good."

"I just want to see Rodia again, just one more time..." Kai said, "hard to keep hopes up around here, until now that is."

"Well we can make that our first destination when we bust out of this joint!" Ash said.

"Thanks man." Kai said.

Several blaster shots rang out, striking some of the prisoners and sending them falling off the walkway and to their deaths. With next to no cover, the prisoners crouched and returned fire on the guards who were positioned higher up around this structure. With just as little cover of their own, the guards began to slowly fall back as many of them found themselves being gunned down.

"Looks like we've got some leftovers!" Ash said.

"They must have come from the barracks!" Higg pondered out loud.

"Doesn't make a difference to me!" Art said.

Finally, the platform reached the highest level of this massive power chamber. The prisoners disembarked the walkway and headed for the nearest doors.

"We'll split up," one of Higg's men said, "half of you will go with me to Landing Pad 3, the other half will take the old podracing track to the clearing where the rest of the ships will be."

"The Imps will be forced to divide their efforts." Higg said.

"Our chances of escape shall be maximized." Volt agreed.

"Good luck out there, boys." Higg said as he saluted his men.

With that, Higg's two remaining men disembarked, trailed by half of the prisoners, including Boelo and Decimus, as they headed for one of the doors on the left. The remaining half, composed of Higgs, Ash, Art, Kai, Qotak, Volt and about fifty other inmates, headed into one of the doors on the right. Approaching the door, they quickly realized it was locked.

"Nobody's been in this part of the prison since the days of the Republic." Higg said as he swiped a high security clearance card through the door's access panel.

With that, the door slid open, revealing a massive tunnel that was plenty wide for all of the prisoners to traverse. Littered with dust and fallen debris, the once great race track which once hosted some of the greatest and fastest pilots in the galaxy now lay derelict and abandoned for decades. To their right, a massive core tunnel, once filled with a bright white light and spinning interior, was now an empty husk, stripped of its value and a cold reminder of the Empire's rise. To their left, at the end of the long tunnel, freedom, a clearing that contained the ships they needed for escape. Though they could not yet see the end of this tunnel, which lay around the slight bend of a corner, they knew it was their ticket to freedom. Quickly, they headed down this massive tunnel, the sounds of their feet echoing seemingly endlessly.

"How long has this part of the prison been abandoned?" Kai asked.

"Since the formation of the Empire..." Higg replied, "Even when this prison was under the jurisdiction of the Republic, they allowed pod races outside the confines of the prison, I guess they figured it was remote enough to avoid the collateral damage associated with the sport."

"Must have been quite a show." Ash said.

"It was." Higg admitted, "The Empire cracked down on it though, they shut it down immediately, and the track's been like this ever since."

By now, the inmates' numbers had dwindled to about a hundred or so. It was a good thing they were so close to their objective, considering how many casualties they had burned through already, there wasn't much left to sacrifice. As they got further and further into the tunnel, however, they could hear that a firefight lay ahead, not too surprising considering that was to be their exit point.

As they rounded the corner of the tunnel, their view of the escape was clear. The atmosphere in this section had been maintained, thanks to Higgs and his men. Five rusty ships, all owned by mercenaries and bounty hunters recruited by Black Sun and other various criminal organizations that the inmates belonged to, were standing their ground against the Imperial guards. Auto-cannons, E-WEB blasters, combat droids, and even the hired guns themselves fought back against the guards, knowing full well the cargo they'd be transporting would either make them rich or dead.

"That's it, boys!" Qotak shouted with glee, "I told you they'd be on time!"

Indeed, Qotak's connections had made this part of the plan possible. Through careful vetting and plotting, he was able to hire the right people for this job. He had done his part, they just had to actually reach the ships alive and escape in time before the Star Destroyer had a chance to take them all out from orbit.

More blaster fire rained down on the prisoners, who sprinted faster than any of them had thought possible. Several, of course, were unable to outrun the gunfire, and were struck down so close to their objective. Tripping over one of his comrade's corpses, Kai fell face first onto the ground, losing precious time. However, he found himself lifted up to his feet, turning to see that Volt had stopped to rescue him.

"Keep moving, Kai!" Volt said out of breath.

"Thank you!" Kai said graciously.

"Everyone split up," Qotak ordered, "Higgs and I will take this one, Ash, Art, Kai, take some of the inmates and go to the next ship! Volt, you take the remainder of the men to the third ship! Then we can all earn our freedom!"

"Sounds good!" Art said.

Soon, a handful of the other prisoners who had split up earlier arrived on scene, with Higgs' men leading the charge to the ships. Also met with heavy resistance from the Imperials, the men did their best to direct the prisoners to their respective ships before boarding the fourth ship. It seemed every single guard who remained alive on Oovo IV had reached this clearing and were doing everything in their power to stop the escape. The momentum of the riot seemed unstoppable at this point, however.

Ash, Art and Kai sat down in the cargo hold of their ship, with about twenty other prisoners, all packed in like Dac sardines, all ready to finally put Desolation Alley behind them firmly in the past.

"You trust these guys?!" Ash asked as he pointed at the cockpit of the ship.

"Qotak does, they're his people after all!" Art replied.

With that, the ship quickly took off, the cargo hold erupting into applause and cheer. With smiles on their faces, Ash and Art dropped their weapons and embraced one another, being able to finally call themselves free after three years of being the property of various owners. As he looked out the viewport, though, Ash saw that two of the ships were still grounded, and were being boarded by the Imperials.

"That's Volt's ship!" Ash shouted as his heart sank.

Indeed, the third and fifth ships, respectively, were now hopelessly trapped on the surface, as blaster fire could be seen inside the cockpits of the two stranded ships.

"Good riddance..." Art said with a grin.

"He was on our side, man!" Ash said.

"Yeah and he saved my life!" Kai said, "That shit with him in the past was over and done with!"

"Yeah well I didn't forget about it. Someone had to go down, keep the Imps occupied." Art said coldly.

"Wait... did you sabotage their ships?" Ash asked as he took a step back.

"I didn't, no. The owners of those two ships work with the Hutts, they were hired by Qotak to be sacrificed, not with their knowledge of course. The men we hired, the ones who saved the rest of our lives, they sabotaged the other two ships, good thing they did too, it'd make our escape a lot harder if they hadn't."

"I can't believe you..." Ash said.

"Now Volt and his men are dead, they trusted us." Kai said.

"That's why the plan worked." Art responded.

With their victory now bittersweet, even the other prisoners seemed uncomfortable, with uneasy looks on their faces. None of them wanted to look Art in the eye, for fear that they too would soon be double crossed by this mastermind.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 – A New Empire**

 **Location: Onboard a mercenary ship, in hyperspace towards undetermined destination  
Time: 4 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, and immediately after the escape**

Never had Ash been so relieved to see the brilliant blue light show of hyperspace ahead of the ship, radiating and flickering through the ship's viewports. Finally far away from his cell back on Oovo IV, the thought of being an escaped convict and high value target of the Empire hadn't phased him as much as he figured it would. It was relatively easy to disappear in this part of the galaxy, and the prisoners were counting on that truth to hold up, for all of their sakes.

"This is it, man," Art said, "this is what Bihan wanted for us."

"We're finally in control of our destinies." Ash replied.

"Damn straight, that's why we're taking the fight back home." Art said.

"Wait, what?" Ash said as he stood up and headed for the cockpit.

Sliding the door open, Ash stepped into the cockpit area, a cluttered mess of droid parts and tools mixed in with debris of unknown origin. Stepping over the charred remains of an 8D smelter droid, Ash walked over to the pilot, a Draag who turned his head back to face the intruder, clearly annoyed.

"What do you want?" the Draag asked with a frown.

"Where are we going?" Ash asked.

"Malastare, didn't Qotak tell you before you broke out?" the pilot replied.

"What the hell?" Ash said as he stormed off back into the cargo hold, "Why are we going back to Malastare?"

"It will be our main base of operations moving forward." Art answered, "It is outside the influence of the Empire, for the most part."

"Art, our whole lives spent on Malastare, then the whole time we were in captivity, all we ever dreamed of was being free, now all you want to do is go back to that slimeball planet?" Ash asked.

"I have ambitions, Ashy Boy... the building blocks for something that can change the galaxy for the better. That's where we'll find it, back home." Art said.

"I've heard a lot about Malastare... none of it is good." Kai said.

"For the most part, you're right." Art admitted, "However it's not nostalgia that is bringing us back there. It's necessity, for what I want to build."

"And what would that be?" Kai asked.

"Stick around, I'll show you." Art said with a smile.

"Guess the trip to Rodia will have to wait for a little while, bud." Ash said.

"Afraid?" Decimus asked with a grin that showed through his tusks.

"Why don't you just stay over there?" Ash replied without making eye contact.

"Here you go, boys..." Art said as he opened up one of the floor compartments, revealing a large stockpile of dirty clothes, "I wasn't sure how many of us would make it off Oovo IV, so I had them fill the floorboards with these clothes. We'll ditch the jumpsuits in here, we can't be seen leaving the ship in them."

With that, the prisoners each dug through the pile of clothes to find the articles of clothing that fit them, some took longer than others, but eventually everyone had changed from their very noticeable and incriminating orange jumpsuits. Within a few hours, the mercenary vessel carrying the inmates exited hyperspace just outside Malastare. It appeared to already be night on the planet, and despite not being able to see too many discering features, this was the first time Ash had seen his homeworld from this particular view. Funny, it almost seemed nice from orbit. There was little hint of the vileness that corrupted the surface, from the brutal fighting between the Gran and Dugs, the corruption of the Hutts and their drug empires, conniving smugglers, the poverty stricken cities, and jungles crawling with horrifying nighttime beasts. Ash wasn't eager to return, but if Art truly had something up his sleeve, he was interested to see what his old friend had in mind.

"We'll be landing in Pixelito, I've got a contact there who's gonna get us a safehouse we can crash at." Art stated as the ship began the landing sequence.

Although not the least bit happy to be back on his home planet, Ash was at least relieved they weren't back at Viktu. Pixelito, the capital of Malastare, was where many of the Dugs had congregated over the years, a result of their feud with the Gran species. Therefore, Ash suspected that Art's contact was a Dug, probably a prolific one that had arisen in the friends' absence on the planet.

Pixelito was a quaint town by most planets' standards, but to the people of Malastare, it was a big deal. Skyscrapers clustered together, packed in and surrounded by cramped streets. In the shadows of the towering buildings, the streets below were a mix of legitimate businesses and backdoor, under the table black market deals, with millions of Dugs and other sentients sharing the tightly planned out roads. Ash was unsure of why the Dugs preferred these tight spaces in their cities, but had learned not to ask the hot headed and violent Dugs directly.

Coming to a rest on one of the city's many landing pads, the ship's hatch hissed loudly and opened, allowing the inmates to finally disembark into the world. This particular landing platform was connected to the headquarters of Redd Bank, a company that had splintered off from the InterGalactic Banking Clan after the Clone Wars, and prospered on Malastare under the careful management of its Muun figureheads.

"Redd Bank, huh... they're just letting us use one of their landing pads?" Ash asked as he looked around, "They know who we are, right?"

"The Muuns can't ever seem to keep their hands clean..." Art said with a smile, "Even after they got caught dealing with the Separatists, they still see the profits one can make in the black market. Lately they've been a front for Grollato's death stick and spice operation."

"Grollato? Is that your contact?" Kai asked.

"Yep!" Art replied.

"I know we're not in the jumpsuits and all, but aren't these bankers worried someone might catch on to what's going on here?" Ash asked, "You know, like any looky loos."

"Well that's what Grollato is paid to take care of if need be." Art said, "Ah, here he comes now."

Flanked by a pair of burly Dashade thugs, a Dug of typical height emerged from the building. With a pair of corrective glasses resting on his face, braided tendrils, and donning an expensive blue robe typically only worn by the Dug nobility, Grollato's appearance seemed to demand respect and authority. He marched towards the inmates, looking at each and every one of his new associates carefully from head to toe.

"It's an honor to meet you in person after all this time." Art said.

"The honor is all mine..." Grollato replied, "You helped rescue two of my men from that awful prison. I am forever in your debt, Mr. Regfeld."

"It was the least I could do for one of my future associates..." Art said, "since that future is now here, we can begin planning."

"Of course." Grollato said, "Your fellow inmates are already at the safehouse. We should be on our way."

With that, the inmates followed Grollato's lead, including Decimus, who rudely shoved past Ash. Art stopped and looked back at Ash and Kai, a remorseful look on his face.

"Look I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I knew you wouldn't approve." he said, "This is a good thing though."

"Can't be any worse than Oovo IV, right?" Kai said.

"Exactly." Art said as he beckoned the two to follow.

As the former convicts entered the bank's headquarters, the bustling sound of flying speeders and cargo ships outside faded away. The interior of this place was quite impressive, a lavish display of red, almost velvet-like carpets and walls, with golden chandeliers that likely cost more credits than the inmates themselves were worth. Inside, it appeared business as usual, nobody seemed to bat an eye at Grollato and the now more appropriately dressed convicts, confirming in Ash's mind that despite the elegant picture this place tried to paint itself as, it was as corrupt as anything else on the planet.

Due to the number of inmates, everyone split into different groups to take the elevators, each group guided by either Grollato himself or one of his Dashade bodyguards. Ash, Art and Kai found themselves in the elevator with the Dug kingpin himself, who swiped a special access card allowing the lift access to a designated floor. After sliding the card and scanning his fingerprint, the lavishly decorated golden lift quickly began to descend, going down many, many stories.

"Where's this safehouse of yours?" Kai asked.

"We have it in the lowest level of the bank, it's even more heavily guarded than the bank vaults themselves." Grollato said.

"How long will we need to be there?" Art asked.

"Until our mutual enemy has been dealt with..." Grollato said, "As long as he lives, you will never be safe on the streets."

"Mutual enemy?" Ash said, "You don't mean who I think you mean."

"Yeah." Art replied.

Before they could say his name aloud, the lift reached the final floor, opening up to a very dark corridor with several rooms on each side, each protected by a very bulky password protected metal door. Ash had to admit, the lengths these criminals were going to in order to ensure the security of its associates was quite impressive.

Grollato used his access codes and scanned his fingerprint once more, allowing the door to slide open, revealing a dimly lit chamber that seemed to resemble military barracks, complete with dozens of bunks spread out through the room and several enclosed showers in the corner. More importantly, the chamber was occupied with many of the other escaped prisoners, including Higgs, his men, and Qotak, who all stood up and breathed a sigh of relief as they saw Art.

"Thank heavens, I was worried you had been recaptured!" Qotak said as he walked over to Art.

Extending his cold alien hand, Qotak shook the hand of his partner in crime, a smile from ear to ear.

"Those Imperial bastards couldn't keep me there for a minute more!" Art said.

"Good work back there, Decimus, incredible show." Qotak said.

"Yeah, that thing with that guy's arm, beautiful." Higgs added.

To Ash, if the sight of Decimus brutally slaughtering the Imperial walker operator wasn't disturbing enough, the idea that these guys were taking pleasure in seeing it was more than enough. He tried his best to hide his look of disgust and said nothing.

"Well boys," Art began, "tomorrow we get back to work. For now, we'll rest, I think we've all earned it. What we are about to set in motion is nothing short of the greatest criminal enterprise the galaxy has ever seen. It'll take some time, but we've waited before, we can wait again. We'll head out tomorrow at eight, big meeting that I want everyone to be there for."

With that, everyone dispersed again, most headed to their bunks to sit down and relax for the first time since they escaped the prison world. Kai, the nimble Rodian he was, climbed onto one of the top bunks quickly and effortlessly, while Ash took the one below him. Art sat down on the adjacent bunk, and looked at his childhood friend.

"Get some sleep, bro, because tomorrow is going to be a big day. You're going to meet some new people." Art said.

"Can't wait." Ash said sarcastically.

"It's gonna be alright, man!" Art replied, "We were destined for great things, and this is our chance."

"You think the Empire is gonna track us here?" Kai asked nervously.

"I doubt it..." Qotak replied as he took his spot on the bunk above Art, "Most of their high profile prisoners were either killed or captured. The most they're probably going to do is post bounties on our heads, but after tomorrow's meeting, I doubt even that will be much of an issue."

"You seem to have a plan for everything." Ash said.

"You don't build a successful prison riot and lay the foundations for a criminal empire without sufficient planning, my friend." Qotak said as he rolled onto his side, signaling the conversation to be over.

Ash did feel himself getting quite tired. It seemed since the moment they broke out of their cells, he hadn't had time to reflect on anything that had happened, or even think about the present time for that matter. It had all been the future, what it held, where it was taking him, but now he was here in that future, and it didn't resonate with him the way he'd expected it to. As with all the other inmates, Ash rolled around and tried as best he could to calm his mind enough to allow some measure of sleep, eventually succeeding.

What little sleep he did get seemed to pay off, because the next morning at precisely eight, the newly freed inmates were shipped out to another discreet location. This one, on the outskirts of Pixelito, was an old fuel station of some sort, probably a relic of the days of the Republic. Large, rusted metal tubes connected to the ground and led into the derelict facility, mynocks feasting on what was left of the electrical components that were probably deemed unreachable to scavengers. It was a great place to meet up, far enough away from prying eyes, but easily accessible enough to the appropriate parties.

As they waited for the last of the conspirators to arrive at the station, Art, Ash, Kai and the other convicts stood on one of the balconies overlooking the vast rocky wastes to the south, a bleak and lifeless contrast to the towering city to the north. Taking a hit from his pipe, Art seemed to look at the dead terrain in front of them as if it were real estate, territory to be conquered, endless potential.

"So are you going to tell us who we're meeting before we actually meet them?" Ash asked.

"Of course." Art replied, "When we broke out, it wasn't just the escape that we planned out, it was who broke out alongside us. There were several high value individuals whose connections would provide the building blocks for our future endeavors."

"I take it you don't mean we saved the son of some noble king, and he wants to reward our efforts with a mansion on Alderaan." Kai asked.

"Funny, but our efforts will be rewarded indeed..." Art continued, "The inmates we rescued belonged to various criminal enterprises, we did our part, and their organizations are prepared to pledge their support for us. The escape on Oovo IV was an investment, if you will, and now it's paying off."

As if on cue, a small but very bizarre looking starfighter became visible as it approached the factory. Flanked by two similar looking ships, these ships seemed to be capable of only holding one person, and had wings that split off into sharp triangle shapes. Giving off vibes of power and brutality, the ships descended just outside the fuel station.

"Vipers..." Art said with a smile, "I have a feeling I know who that is. Come on, boys."

Art put aside his pipe and eagerly pushed open the door that led from the balcony into the second story of the fuel station. The ancient metal floor beneath them creaked and groaned alarmingly loud, but it didn't seem to phase Art as he led the way down the dark walkway and towards the meeting area. Clambering down the brittle stairs, the three reached the assembly area, which was being fully lit by several droids, illuminating the faces of the conspirators. The inmates behind Art all tried to see if they could recognize anyone.

"Everyone, I'm very glad you could make it today." Art began, "Some of you know one another, but I'm sure that not everyone here is familiar with each other. So let's clear that up before we go any further." he said as he looked back at Ash and the others.

First pointing to the blue robe wearing Dug, he began the introductions, "I don't believe Grollato needs any introduction, but perhaps our newly arrived associates have not had the pleasure of meeting him. He's the closest thing to a rival that Kurka has on Malastare."

That was it, the confirmation Ash had been afraid to ask directly. He knew deep down the reason Art had sought to return to Malastare, all these years later, even when given the chance to go anywhere else in the galaxy. Revenge, revenge on the being who had wronged the two friends in the worst way imaginable.

"Grolatto has lots of the Dugs on his side," Art continued, "they want the Hutts off this world for good. With his help, we will ensure that they get their vile, slithering carcasses off this planet which rightly belongs to us."

"The Zabrak on the hologram is Maul, leader of Crimson Dawn." Ash continued.

"I wish that I was able to be there in person for this... momentous occasion..." Maul muttered, "but a great many matters require my attention elsewhere."

"Understandable, sir." Art said, "We appreciate your presence in this meeting and your willingness to partake in this syndicate. Your vast powers and resources are a very welcome addition."

Next to Maul's hologram was a Givin, who was visibly uncomfortable standing next to even the hologram of the terrifying Maul. The Givin's bony, pale white and ghostly face really stood out from the rest of the beings in the room.

"This is Elis Helrot, he'll be supplying us with the weapons and precious cargo we'll be needing."

Now pointing to a fat, bald and bearded human man, Ash continued this roll call.

"This man here is Zimm, he's been a manager for the bounty offices of the Outer Rim for quite some time, he has connections with some of the finest bounty hunters in the galaxy, the ones who will take any kind of job, no matter how dirty."

A pair of Cereans were next in line, distinguishable from their otherwise human appearance by their elongated craniums.

"The Cerean Brotherhood, originally cast out by their kind, but now they run the black market on their home planet and many others like it."

Four robed individuals stood side by side, two human, one Sullustan, and one Twi'lek.

"The Crymorah Syndicate, a collection of some of the most influential and respected crime families in the galaxy. They've been doing this for many years, their experience and knowledge will be extremely welcome and useful to us."

A pair of humans dressed in very expensive looking suits stood next in line.

"The Free Market, experts in the tactic of internal takedowns. They join the ranks of their enemies, typically legitimate businesses, load them up with debt, tax fraud, or criminal evidence to destroy the business quietly and in a clean manner."

"Last but not least, Prince Xizor of Black Sun and Lord Kromm of the Pyke Syndicate. I doubt their organizations require any introduction."

Indeed, Xizor's name was synonymous with organized crime, especially in this part of the galaxy. With power and wealth rivaled only by the Emperor himself, the Falleen stood taller than the rest of the conspirators, with an icy glare that sent chills into anyone who it fell on.

Lord Kromm's reputation preceded him, members of his syndicate ran spice operations on Oba Diah and Kessel. Nothing happened on these worlds without their say so, they were experts in managing planet-spanning drug cartels. Kromm's giant head, tiny face, and small purple eyes was somewhat unsettling to the other beings in the room, even to the ghoulish Elis Helrot.

"So that's everyone..." Art said, "but I don't think our common enemy needs any crash courses, am I right? Whether you owe him a great deal of credits, or if he is a rival, or if you simply have something to gain from his demise... Kurka the Hutt has got to go. That giant greaseball has overstayed his welcome in this galaxy and deserves to die. This is going to take some time. We can't just rush into Kurka's fortress. We're going to weaken his defenses, learn the layout and routines of Kurka and his men, we're going to seek out his enemies, dig up dirt on his allies, anything we can do to bring him down. Everyone here is key to this plot, and with our combined efforts, we will take him down."

Looks and nods of approval surrounded Art, who now found himself helming the massive operation of taking control of Malastare's drug trade. Coordinating the efforts and methods of so many great and powerful beings was an almost god-like feeling, he felt untouchable, invincible. After the meeting disbanded, he met up with Ash and Kai on the balcony again.

"Art, I don't want to go anywhere near that thing again." Ash said.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty nervous myself..." Art admitted, "But the last time we saw him, we were naive and new to all of this. We've killed people, Ash, we broke out of an Imperial prison. We can handle that scumbag now, him and anything he throws at us."

"From what Ash has told me," Kai said, "this Kurka is ruthless but careful in how he does business. What if we're making a mistake?"

"Letting him live would be a mistake." Art stated.

"It's not just that, Art..." Ash said, "You got some real scum back there, working with us. Black Sun? The Pykes? Art, those are the people we wanted to get away from when we were younger! I don't like it, at all, none of this feels right, and the Art that I knew would say the same thing."

"The Art you knew?" Art asked aghast, "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you've changed, man..." Ash said, "It wasn't just on Oovo IV, hell, it wasn't even when we escaped the Veiled Lady. I think Bihan's death changed you for the worse. You've become cold, plotting, and willing to do anything for revenge."

"Kurka did this to us, Ash..." Art said, "and he's going to pay for that. Afterwards... who knows what can happen? Maybe we can put things back to normal after."

"I'd like that, man." Ash said.

"I wanted you two here for this meeting." Art said, "However, now that it's been talked about, I think you and Kai should take some much deserved time off. Clear your heads a little, but come back ready to do what needs to be done."

With that, Art walked off and headed back into the fuel station, leaving Ash and Kai alone.

"You think he's really gonna try and fix things after we do this?" Kai asked.

"I really hope so, Kai." Ash said, "He's the closest thing to a brother that I have. I don't want to lose him too."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 – Welcome to Malastare, Check Your Morals At the Door**

 **Location: Just outside Kurka the Hutt's compound, Malastare  
Time: 3.5 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, several months after the riot on Oovo IV**

Art hadn't been lying about this taking time. Careful planning, months of it, went into this plot. Like a Yam'rii waiting in ambush, sitting for hours at a time just to strike at the perfect moment. The syndicate he had formed, his dream team, was instrumental in bringing this day to fruition. With many of Kurka's guards paid to be elsewhere, his funding drying up quickly, and increasing boldness from his rival Grollatto, the Hutt was being backed into a corner. Art was well aware that forcing any animal into that position could be dangerous, but he didn't mind. He wanted Kurka to fear the end.

With the help of their spies, they were able to utilize a complete layout of Kurka's fortress, which sat atop a massive cliff in the barrens of Malastare. Formerly an iron foundry, the massive structure looked down on the scenery in all directions, the perfect place to defend from attackers. It was a challenge, but Art welcomed that, it would make the victory that much sweeter.

Disguising themselves as the guards they had paid off, Art, Ash, Kai, Decimus, Boelo, Higgs and two inmates disembarked their speeders and approached the main entrance, a large metal door that rolled up using a pulley system from the inside. Quite old fashioned, but it wouldn't be a problem. Approaching this door, the door guard was easily fooled by the disguises.

"Shift change already?" the Bothan door guard asked as he signaled to the wall mounted camera.

The metal door slowly slid up in increments, no doubt due to its weight. Once it was sufficiently out of the way, Art and the conspirators looked at one another.

"Yeah, you're being relieved of duty permanently." Art replied as he pulled out a hidden shank and stabbed the Bothan in the gut.

As Art continued to disembowel the door guard, the rest of the attackers sprinted inside before the other door guard could react. With a hard swing of his massive fists, Decimus pummeled the Zabrak guard to the ground, sending him crumbling to the ground in a heap. With a huff of amusement, Decimus finished off the guard with a stomp to the head.

"Shut the door, we don't want anyone to get out behind us." Art said.

Using a vibro-blade, Higgs sliced through the door's chain, sending the massive metal sheet crashing to the ground instantly.

"I doubt any of the guards in here will think to leave through the ducts." Art said as he continued further into the foundry.

Just like the plan called for, Boelo, Higgs and one of the other convicts split off from the rest, heading for one of the old smelting rooms, where they planned to snuff out a group of thugs that were known to congregate there. Art led the rest in the more direct route to Kurka's chamber, cutting through the section that used to hold the assembly lines, but was now converted into a massive death stick manufacturing belt, filled with slaves who didn't appear to be aware of what was taking place. The slaves, all different kinds of species, continued to be invested in their work, putting together the deadly concoctions that had made such a big impact on the galaxy over the years.

"Hey who's watching the door?" a Nikto guard asked as he stepped into the attacker's way, still fooled by the disguises.

"Don't worry about it." one of the convicts said as he swiped his machete, decapitating the Nikto guard.

Now the intruders had the attention of the slaves, who continued producing the drug to avoid being reprimanded by their master, but were now constantly glancing up at the intruders, shocked to see the carnage before them.

"Get back to work," Art said, "when this is over, you'll be working for me."

"Wait what?" Ash said, "You know they're slaves, right?"

"Yeah I know, did I stutter?" Art said.

From one of the halls that connected to the assembly room, Art and the others could hear blaster fire erupting. If they hadn't been aware of their presence before, they definitely were now. Art hoped that Higgs and Boelo would mop up enough of Kurka's men to clear a path to the big man himself. Still shocked by his friend's words, but determined to continue the mission, Ash raised his blaster and gunned down the wall mounted TT-8L droids, who were almost certainly providing surveillance of their activities and transmitting it to Kurka's throne room.

"Good thinking." Art noticed.

"Here they come." Decimus said as he pointed to the other side of the assembly area.

Sure enough, six thugs stormed in from one of the lifts and began opening fire, all armed to the teeth with heavy duty blaster rifles.

"Get down, all of you!" Ash shouted at the slaves, who obeyed and ducked behind cover as best they could.

Four of the guards were Weequay, two were Nautolans, and the last one was a familiar looking Klatooinian. As the intruders returned fire, Ash realized the last thug was one of the brutes who had beaten Bihan to death all those years ago. With fire now coursing through his veins, Ash rose from cover and blasted the Klatooinian's face off and ensured one of the Weequay caught a blaster bolt to the chest. It didn't take long for the rest to be mowed down by the intruders, who as of yet hadn't experienced a single casualty.

"Nice work, boys." Art said as he began to pick up the pace and lead the charge into the deeper parts of the base.

The palace seemed a lot larger from the outside, even the precise layout they'd been given made it seem like it would be a bigger trek than it really was. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but whatever the case, Ash and the other intruders reached the outside of Kurka's throne room, which thankfully was not protected by a door, but was still filled with enough thugs to put up a final fight.

There he was, sitting on one of those repulsorlifts in the back of the throne room, that foul, disgusting creature that had ruined their lives all those years ago. He didn't seem quite as intimidating this time, a lot can change in just a few years, Ash and Art certainly had. Within a matter of moments, enough of the guards in the throne room had been gunned down for the rest to throw their weapons aside and surrender. Kurka angrily shouted at them in his native tongue, pointing to their weapons they had given up.

"There's no point, they won't be able to kill us all, and they know it." Boelo taunted as he and Higgs caught up with Art.

"Finally..." Art said, "I've finally got you. Boys, keep some guns on him, make sure he doesn't go anywhere. I want him to see this..." he looked at each of the surviving guards, "Get over here now!"

At this point, only three guards remained. The three of them all quickly hurried to Art, hands still raised in the air. Without saying anything, Art pointed to the floor, and just as quickly they dropped to their knees and kept their eyes on the ground, hoping their cooperation would spare them. Art focused on one of the guards in particular, a Quarren.

Art – "I remember you. You were one of the guards who beat my friend Bihan to death. I wanted to punish the both of you in front of your master, but alas, in the midst of the chaos, Ash had to put down your Klatooinian friend. No matter, though, your death will suffice."

Grabbing the Quarren by his face tentacles, Art slammed his wrist-concealed vibroblade through the bottom of the guard's jaw, then tore it free, letting the wounded grunt collapse to the ground and bleed out.

"Since I don't know the two of you, I'll at least make yours quick." Art said coldly as he pulled out his blaster pistol and shot the two of them in their heads, "Now... your turn my friend." he said as he walked over to Kurka, who had a look of utter dread and terror on his hideous face.

Kurka began speaking Huttese, the alien words sent the already furious and maddened Art into a frenzy, jabbing his shank into Kurka's side.

"Speak Basic, you worm! No more of that disgusting filth you call a language." Art said as he relented his attack with the shank.

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Kurka sputtered with a broken accent, "Whatever it is you want, I've got the money, I have vehicles-"

"I don't want anything from you except your slow death..." Art interrupted, "Money is not an issue. A lot of people paid well to ensure your demise. Took a lot of time and effort but we made it happen. Do you know who I am?"

"I wish I did, maybe then I could understand what I did to make you want to kill me!" Kurka said.

"Wrong answer." Art said as he thumbed the power level switch on his blaster.

Aiming at the Hutt's tail, Art pulled the trigger, zapping a massive hole into the Hutt's appendage, making him scream, which brought a chilling smile to Art's face. Even the other intruders seemed somewhat uncomfortable with this, not out of sympathy for the Hutt, but for the lengths this man was going to ensure misery for another sentient.

"This day, everything we're doing here, this is for my friend, Bihan, or did you forget him too?" Art shouted as he aimed his blaster at Kurka's face, "The Verpine! He was my best friend, no, he was like a brother to me. You took him from me, from Ash, in the cruelest way. I'm gonna make what happened to him look like a cakewalk compared to what I do to you."

"What you said about him," Kurka began, "your friend, he would have wanted you to put the past behind you. Killing me isn't going to bring your friend back!"

Ignoring the alien's pleas, Art deactivated the repulsorlift, making it crash to the ground, sending Kurka face first onto the floor.

"How the mighty have fallen!" Art said as he crouched down next to him, "Look at him, Ash, it's Kurka the Great. This is out of character for you, Kurks, you're usually looking down on everyone, orchestrating so much destruction, but here you are, afraid for your life. You see, I take away your henchmen, and you have nothing. Because that's what you are. You know, of all the horrible things you've done, the one thing I appreciated is that you made Bihan's death relatively quick. I just want you to know that I won't be extending that same courtesy to you. You see, I don't think there's any kind of honor with you bloated sacks of scum. I don't think you're worth a promise, or mercy, I'd respect a Nexu before I'd ever respect a Hutt. I'm gonna make your last few moments of existence pure suffering."

Unhooking the pin of a bright purple poisonous capsule, Art dropped the device into the vile mouth of the Hutt, before its contents began to leak out of the crime lord's maw and nose.

"Know what that is?" Art asked, "That's the taste of a nerve agent. Soon it'll fill every crevice in your filthy body, and you're going to be awake for every moment of it."

"Dude, what are you doing?" Kai asked.

"Just shoot him and let's go." Ash said.

"This thing killed our friend, Ash! He deserves to suffer." Art said as he stood up.

"Yeah, alright, he does." Ash admitted, "He's a horrible creature, he's hurt a lot of people. But you are slowly becoming more and more like him, Art. I mean is this why we broke out of prison? To kill? To be like them? I thought we were trying to be free, to leave this all behind us."

"It will be behind us, when they're all dead." Art said as he looked back at Kurka, who was now writhing on the floor.

"All of who? The Hutts? You can't be serious." Kai said.

"I'm going to make it my mission to kill them all..." Art began, "What value have their species done for the galaxy? All they do is control people, they ruin lives, they're animals that only know how to manipulate people into doing their bidding. We'll be doing the galaxy a favor when we purge them."

"This is messed up, dude." Kai said.

"He's right, Art," Ash said, "this is going too far-"

"You were right before!" Art said, "The Art you knew would never want to go on a quest of revenge like that. When the Hutts hear the name Art Regfeld, they think of the slave, being worked nearly to death on their vessels while they laughed. Those days are over, that man's story is over. They need to fear a new name. Egon Tucker. That's who I am now."

With that, Egon, the new Art, knelt down next to Kurka, who was still clinging barely to life.

"You hear that?" Egon asked, "I just want you to hear my name before you die. I want you to know that Egon Tucker did this to you."

When all was said and done, Kurka continued to bask in his own agony for several more minutes before succumbing to the poison capsule, which had coursed through every crevice of the kingpin's sluggish body. Ash and Kai felt sick to their stomachs and retreated to one of the balconies while Egon and the rest pillaged the palace of valuables and executed the rest of the guards.

"I have to draw the line here, man..." Ash said, "Art's gone too far."

"You mean Egon..." Kai corrected, "what's with that name anyway?"

"We used to play these games when we were kids, we'd run around the slums and pretend to be warriors. It was the name he came up with for his imaginary hero character. Now it's being used for something far from innocence." Ash explained.

"Yeah, I mean that was some psychotic shit back there." Kai said.

"It was, and the thing with those slaves, I really hope he isn't planning on using them for anything." Ash said, "I don't think I can be a part of this anymore."

"Yeah, count me out." Kai agreed, "Soon as we get back to the Pixelito, I'm gonesville."

"Where will you go?" Ash asked.

"Well, I think I might try and see what the Rebellion's been up to since I was incarcerated." Kai said, "You can come with if you want."

"Aren't they dangerous?" Ash asked, "I mean, no offense, but I've read reports on what they've done. They've killed a lot of people."

"The early days of the Rebellion were like that, unfortunately." Kai admitted, "Desperate people did some horrible things. But we're not going to just behead someone for nothing, we've even tried to be humane to the Imps we capture. At least we were last time I was with them."

"Well, I suppose I could give it a shot." Ash said with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

The balcony door shot up suddenly, allowing Egon to come out into the fresh outside air with Ash and Kai.

"We did it..." Egon said, "Malastare's drug trade belongs to us."

"At a great cost." Ash said.

"They got what was coming to them." Egon said coldly.

"Could you clarify on what you plan to do with those slaves?" Ash asked.

"What is there to clarify?" Egon asked, "They work for us now. They won't be mistreated, but they are ours. They will produce the same quality product for us, they will provide us the intel we need on Kurka's associates, and when we sell them, the profits will be used to fund our campaign against the Hutts."

"Art-I mean Egon..." Ash corrected, "This feels really wrong, bro, I mean they're people just like us."

"They cannot be allowed to go free, they know too much about the Hutts..." Egon stated, "The more we know about them, the more of their slaves we can take from them."

"Slavery is still slavery, man." Kai said.

"I don't know how else to explain it to you." Egon said with a sigh, "Anyway, I figured I'd update you two on what's just happened. The Cerean Brotherhood, Crymorah Syndicate and The Free Market are now at war with one another. It wasn't easy to hide my involvement in this dispute, but they will be none the wiser to it. If they ever figure it out, it'll be long after their numbers have dwindled and their assets swallowed up and redistributed into our credit flow."

"Is this your idea of uniting the criminal underworld, making it a safer place?" Ash asked.

"Something like that, yeah." Egon said, "We still have Grollato, Zimm and the others who weren't affiliated with any specific cartels. No sense in turning our backs on them."

"So that means we're left with Black Sun, The Pykes and Crimson Dawn?" Ash asked, "They're way worse than the three groups you betrayed! We're left with these psychopathic megalomaniacs who don't care who they have to kill to get what they want!"

"The people I had killed were tainted with filthy Hutt scum," Egon explained, "the ones that are left are clean. We'll build our numbers up, and we'll take down the Hutts with an army. What are you so upset about? Those worms are going to kill each other off now and we get a bigger piece of the metaphorical pie in their absence, I don't see the down side here."

"Except if news of this gets out, everyone you offer a job to is gonna be worried about getting stabbed in the back over even a slight suspicion of being connected with the Hutts." Kai argued.

"Did you just call me a backstabber?" Egon asked, glaring at the Rodian.

"He was trying to say-" Ash began, seeing the danger.

"He's a big boy, he knows what he said." Egon interrupted, "Listen, Kai, my word is bond to everyone except those who deal with the Hutts, my word means nothing when I say it to them. I've never wronged anyone who didn't have it coming."

"What about those slaves?" Kai asked, "What did they have to do with anything? You used to be one of them!"

"Yeah, and now look at me, now I'm on top." Egon boasted, "Sometimes people win, sometimes they don't, they gotta put in the effort if they wanna win."

"If this is what winning looks like, I don't know that it's worth gloating about." Kai said.

"What the hell does that mean? You got something you wanna say to me?" Egon demanded.

"We wanna leave the life, man." Ash declared.

"This just isn't for us, bro. No disrespect to you or your organization." Kai offered.

"You insult what I do, you turn your backs on me, and you mean no disrespect? I'll tell you what." Egon said calmly as he reached for something.

With one nearly instantaneous motion, Egon pulled out his blaster and shot Kai in the face, killing him instantly. Ash looked on in horror and tears began to well up in his eyes as he looks at his friend's corpse as he relived the death of Bihan all over again. The smell of burned and vaporized flesh nearly made Ash vomit, an overpowering stench of death in a day so full of unnecessary violence, it was more than he could take. Collapsing to his knees from both intense sadness and from weakness in the loss of yet another friend, Ash admitted defeat, but could not look Egon in the eyes.

"There, how's that for leaving the life?" Egon mocked, "Rodian scum... Go ahead, ask him how it feels to not be alive, piece of shit. Doesn't look so fun, does it? HEY! ANSWER ME!" he shouted.

"It doesn't." Ash said quietly.

"You did this, Ash." Egon declared with no remorse, "Don't you ever make me do that again, I've got plenty of slaves that will make for sufficient collateral. You're shipping out with Black Sun tomorrow morning, be ready in the hangar bay at Redd Bank's headquarters."

Egon then stormed off, leaving behind not just Ash, but anything left of their friendship and brotherhood. Having sacrificed his name and past for the chance of power, he'd turned his back on Ash for the last time. To him, Art was now truly dead, just like Bihan and now, unfortunately, like the young rebel Kai. With his fists clenched nearly to the point of breakage, Ash's mind raced wildly with murderous thoughts of his own.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 – Getting Even**

 **Location: Dulani, currently the second largest city on Malastare  
Time: 2 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

A year and a half had now passed since Egon Tucker's rise to power, and as the kingpin of Malastare's black market, everything went his way. Wealth previously unimaginable, a growing army of goons, dozens of slaves, and a steady flow of drugs, weapons and stolen goods to keep the machine moving. It made Ash sick just thinking about it. There was nothing just about it. Art was gone now, there was only Egon.

It had taken this long for Ash to gain his old friend's trust back. For months following his attempt to leave the life of crime behind him, Ash found himself only a step or two above being a slave. Enduring beatings at the hand of Decimus, being given demeaning orders from Qotak, having to provide muscle for highly illegal and immoral black market dealings, and being carefully monitored at almost all times. In Egon's eyes, Ash had finally learned his lesson, and was able to be trusted again. It was all worth it to Ash, just so he could get back at him.

Ash stood in one of the many hangars at Dulani Spaceport, awaiting a shipment from one of Egon's clients, the Givin known as Elis Helrot. Now trusted enough to have his very own escort of Black Sun goons to command, Ash was in charge of overseeing the quality control required in this line of work. He'd gotten quite an eye for spotting the things that irked the eye of Egon, part of the reason he'd regained his trust in the first place.

"Ah," Ash said as he straightened his posture, "here he is, finally."

Indeed, Helrot's personal cargo ship was now entering the hangar next to Ash's personal vessel. Punctuality was something of a requirement with Egon, it was something Elis would need to get right moving forward, or face dire consequences. The Givin's ship barely had time to dock before the door hatch slid open, allowing Elis to hurry out towards Ash.

"You're late." Ash said, arms crossed in front of him.

"We had some trouble getting the-" Elis began to say.

"I really don't want to hear any excuses, just don't be late next time..." Ash interrupted, "Egon really doesn't like that, and that means that I really don't like that."

"Well, as you can see, we met the quota that Egon set for us! The best batch from Pavilion!" Elis said, hoping to make up for it.

Two of Helrot's own men exited the vehicle, guns ready as they ushered the slaves out. Among the slaves that Ash could see, there was a Shistavanen, an Advozse, three female Twi'leks, an Aleena, and two humans, one human and one female, who appeared to be related and both in their early twenties. Although disgusted by the very concept of slavery, Ash had grown to hide his distaste and conduct his business as professionally as possible.

"Nice work." Ash said.

"I trust that the shipment of BlasTec armaments will be available next week?" Helrot asked.

"Yes, because we're actually dependable..." Ash said, "ensure your tardiness does not become a routine. Otherwise we might need to have a group of Black Sun associates by your side to accompany you on your drop-offs."

"That won't be necessary!" Elis said with a nervous laugh.

"I really hope you're right." Ash said with a smile, "See you next week."

"You too, sir." Elis said as he turned back around and quickly headed back to his ship with his men.

The Black Sun goons that had accompanied Ash had just finished loading the slaves into the cargo bay, just in time. Ash headed into the ship and began plotting the course back to Egon's compound on the outskirts of the city. He'd finally gotten used to calling Art by his new name, Egon Tucker. It fit him, this persona the man had created, shaped by bloodlust and greed, it was nothing like the boy he'd grown up with.

After docking in Egon's personal hangar, another privilege granted to him quite recently, Ash handed the duty of unloading the slaves off to the thugs that resided in the compound. The Black Sun associates headed to their personal ships, the Vipers, finished with their part of the deal. Ash didn't dare to look any of the slaves in their eyes, he still had a job to do if he was going to set things right.

As was normal after pickups and drop-offs, Ash headed to the top floor of the compound to report to Egon. It had become a routine, which was good, just meant that Egon was less likely to suspect a betrayal at this point. Arriving at the boss's personal chambers, he knocked three times, standing patiently until the door slid open, allowing him entry.

Egon's office had been filled with gifts granted to him by Grollato and some of the local dealers they'd taken in under their wing. Many pieces of gorgeous Dug artwork, sculptures, paintings, and even some graffiti, decorated nearly every spot on the walls where Egon could fit them. The lavish life had been denied to them in their childhoods, it seemed Egon was now getting that chance as an adult, but only through ruling the drug market on Malastare with an iron fist. Sitting at his desk, he smiled as Ash entered.

"Hey Ash!" Egon greeted, "The delivery went well?"

"Sure did, I think those slaves will serve us well," Ash reported, "any news?"

"Actually yeah," Egon said as he read over one of his holopads, "The Hutts just got hit hard from some new guy. He went in all by himself and took out Mora the Hutt and all his guys. Left them in pieces, real fine job."

"Who is he?" Ash asked.

"Aside from being the Angel of Death, no clue..." Egon replied, "Some Kaleesh that nobody seems to recognize, but he's definitely no fan of the Hutts. I'm gonna try and see if he's got a price."

"Just be careful," Ash cautioned, "we don't know where this guy's loyalties lie, if he even has any."

"I'll figure it out, and if he can be bought, he will be mine." Egon declared, "Oh and I had Qotak design a new emblem for our operation. He's quite an artist."

Holding up a holopad and activating it, an intricate design flashed into view. It was a Hutt's head being strangled by a dianoga. Huffing in amusement, Ash already understood the reasoning behind it.

"That's supposed to be that dianoga we would always see back in Viktu, right?" Ash asked, "What did we call that thing anyway?"

"Crawdad, that was what we named it." Egon said with nostalgic reflection.

"Man that thing was always there," Ash remembered, "I wonder if its got kids wandering around the sewers now."

"It probably does," Egon thought, "those things seem to spread around like nothing else. The boys over at Black Sun still treating you right?"

"Yeah, they keep asking me if you're going to be one of their next Vigos." Ash said.

"Really?" Egon said with a look of surprise, "Huh. I don't think so. I've gotten this far on my own, Black Sun has been a great ally but I don't know that I'd want to ingrain myself in their legion that way."

"You have to admit that Vigo Egon has a nice ring to it." Ash said with a smile.

"That it does, Ashy Boy!" Egon said with a laugh. For the briefest of moments, it almost felt like old times.

"Hey, I'm... uh, I'm sorry for how things got between us. I never wanted any of it." Ash said quietly.

"Me neither. I don't know if we can ever really go back to how things used to be, but it's a start..." Egon admitted, "I had to make you see things straight, you know that, right?"

"I know." Ash agreed.

"You've stuck by my side through everything. You're the last person in my life I still have from before all of this." Egon said.

"This is my place," Ash stated, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I appreciate that. Well hey, I'll let you go, I have to get in touch with Zimm here in a bit." Egon said.

"Alright, I'll be around." Ash replied.

"Okay!" Egon said.

Heading back out of Egon's chambers, the fake smile faded from Ash's face. For Egon's actions to have such little meaning to him, it was terrifying. To view the killing of Kai as nothing more than making Ash see things straight, it was disgusting. Manipulative, psychotic, megalomaniacal traitor. Ash knew, however, that he was finally on his old friend's good side, which was precisely where he needed to be for his plan to unfold.

He waited until after midnight. With all of their opposition on the planet already wiped out, the guards had nothing to worry about at this hour, and were all already fast asleep. They'd left any night time surveillance up to a few droids, but their presence was of no consequence to Ash. He knew every little nook and cranny of the compound like the back of his hand, and was silent as the night itself as he crept through it, heading to the lowest level, where the slaves were kept.

Opening the door to the slave pens as quietly as humanly possible, he activated a small flashlight to illuminate the path ahead, showing the confused faces of the slaves. Now restless and curious, they looked at Ash, seeing him as just another one of their conquerers. Finally able to show sympathy and mercy, he opened each of their cell doors and backed away, a finger to his lips indicating them to keep quiet.

"We don't have a lot of time," Ash whispered, "we need to go, now."

"What's going on?" a Twi'lek girl asked just as quietly.

"I'm getting you all out of here." Ash answered as he beckoned for them all to follow him.

In doing this, Ash knew that he was severing any chance of a future with his old friend, but in his eyes, Egon had done that when he murdered Kai and forced his best friend into servitude. Without even the slightest shred of regret, Ash led the slaves, about twenty of them, through the compound and towards the hangar. He was amazed by how quiet they were all capable of being, but desperation must have put their self control into overdrive.

Thankfully, as brutal and apathetic as he was, Egon deemed it overkill to plant the explosive chips into his slaves as many others had to prevent them from escaping. Even if he had, Ash would have done his absolute best to get around that, but in a way, he was somewhat grateful to his former friend for making this escape that much easier.

He'd never been so relieved to see the hull of his ship docked in the hangar. Activating the door from a distance, the slaves became visibly ecstatic as they boarded, most not looking back even once, save for one, the Twi'lek who had spoken up earlier. She stopped and looked back at Ash, who was not boarding alongside them.

"The Arcona among you had piloting experience," Ash said, "Tell him to prep the ship for takeoff. If I'm not back in six minutes, you go, no exceptions."

"Where are you going?" the Twi'lek asked.

"I have a score to settle before we go." Ash answered as he looked back at the entrance of the hangar.

"Make them hurt." the slave girl replied as she boarded the ship.

The first step in his plan now complete, Ash patted the dagger that was tucked into his waistband and left the hangar, sneaking back into the compound's nearly pitch black and deafeningly quiet halls. This next step was perhaps the most risky, but was absolutely necessary in his eyes. Heading into the largest of the storerooms, he gazed upon dozens of large crates, all filled to the top with the rawest form of spice. Sold as is, this was worth several hundred thousand credits, but in a refined form, was worth nearly a million.

Unlocking the clear capsules in his pockets, he tossed one into each of the crates, allowing the larval dung beetles, native to Kubindi, to begin rapidly maturing and eventually reproduce inside the spice, completely devaluing it to both manufacturer and users alike. A grin from ear to ear as the disgusting grubs slithered through the spice, Ash barely avoided chuckling to himself at the knowledge of the irreversible damage he'd done to Egon's spice empire.

The last stage of this plan, and by far the most difficult one, was now before him. Ash reached the living quarters of the compound. They need not all die, just enough of them to really hurt Egon where it counted. Dagger ready, Ash entered the living quarters, going for Decimus' room first. The muscled Aqualish lay on his back, asleep in his bed. Years of being pushed around, bullied, and later on even beaten by this Aqualish, it was finally time to get even. Ash quietly approached and stood over him, then stuck his blade into the Aqualish's throat. Awakened but unable to make a sound, the henchman glared up at Ash, who placed one hand over the dying alien's tusked mouth, looking down at him unapologetically as he plunged the blade further in, killing the henchman.

Ash proceeded to enter the shared living quarters of Qotak and his most trusted footsoldiers. Since the days of prison, Qotak had always preferred to sleep in the company of his bodyguards, a cautious creature, but it wouldn't save him tonight. Each asleep in their own bed and unaware of Ash's presence, he carefully snuck through the room and stood next to Qotak. In one swift motion, Ash covered the Korrivar's mouth and stabbed him in the temple at the same time. Qotak had barely any time to even assess the situation he was in before the life faded from his eyes.

Pulling the blood covered dagger out of Qotak's head, Ash moved on to the bodyguards' beds. The first one, a Falleen, died relatively quickly from the dagger that had been slammed into his chest. The other guard, a human male, had a bit more fight in him but ultimately succumbed to the dagger being forced through his neck. Strangely enough to Ash, he carried no guilt over taking the lives of defenseless people.

Satisfied with the carnage, yet not proud of it, Ash left the living quarters and stealthily back to the hangar. He only wished he would be around to see Egon wake up and see what his former friend had done. Tiptoeing through the dead quiet compound, which he never intended to return to, Ash finally reached the hangar once more. Boarding the ship, he ignored making eye contact with the slaves as he punched in the controls for the ship to take off. Speeding out of the hangar, and very shortly after the atmosphere of Malastare, Ash felt free for the first time in five years. The slaves cheered wildly behind him, which made the feeling of what he'd done feel slightly better.

"Are you okay?" the Advozse slave asked.

"No." Ash replied bluntly, "we're going to have three separate drop-offs for you people. Decide real quick, because we're going to reach the first one in about three hours. Naboo, Caamas Minor, and Ithor, those are your choices. You'll be safe on those worlds, there are good people on all of them, they'll take care of you or get you where you need to go."

Knowing full well he was never going to have another conversation with his old friend again, Ash spent the trips to these worlds sitting still, depressed and reflecting on everything that had happened over the last five years to bring him to this point, turning him into a murderer just like the people he despised. As the slaves disembarked on their respective worlds, they each expressed an undying gratitude to Ash, who was too numb and distant to say much in return. Even a kiss on the cheek from one of the Twi'leks wasn't enough to bring him back from this somber mood.

Ash knew what he'd done was wrong. He knew he was just like Kurka and Egon now. It was what that life entailed, a cycle of constantly hurting people and changing them into monsters. He could rationalize it as trying to do some good by saving those slaves, or getting revenge from the ultimate betrayal, or simply doing what it took to earn his own freedom, but he knew that was all Bantha shit. He never would have done any of that all those years ago. There was no going back, he'd carry his past with him everywhere he went from now on, even if it wasn't written on him.

With the ship still in hyperspace after the last slaves were dropped off, Ash slowly and lazily got up from his seat, looking around for something to do on this ship which he knew he would have to dispose of eventually if he didn't want to be caught by Egon. Ash nearly jumped out of his own skin when he saw that there was still one slave still on the ship, a Weequay, just sitting on the floor and meditating. This one had been a slave to Egon for quite some time, and he'd never said a word, not that Ash was aware of at least.

"You scared the absolute shit out of me!" Ash said loudly.

The Weequay didn't look up at Ash or even acknowledge that he had heard him. Tilting his head in confusion, Ash stepped closer to the slave.

"So... Kojak... that is your name, right? That's what the other slaves were calling you. Never heard you speak before, man, but now's the time. Everyone else has been dropped off. You never said where you wanted to go."

The Weequay sat still, this time his eyes shifted towards Ash, but still silent as ever. Ash grew impatient.

"So, what, are you gonna just sit there forever? You don't even know where you want to go?" Ash began to say, "You know, some people would kill to have the chance you do! Not everyone gets to have a pilot take them anywhere in the galaxy they want! Some of them have to sell drugs, save up every single credit they make, and watch their friends get murdered right in front of them! They make it where they are and feel bad about every decision they make because their friends died getting them here!"

Ash could begin to feel tears welling up in his eyes, he hated getting like this, letting his hard exterior crack for even a second. Now he seemed to have Kojak's full attention. Ash sat down next to the Weequay slave, his gaze not focused on anything in particular.

"I lost my two brothers..." Ash said, "I was supposed to be doing this with them, taking on the galaxy. I'm never going to have that chance with them. This should be a great thing, but it doesn't feel like it. That bastard Egon... We both went through the same thing. Bihan's death didn't turn me into a psychotic murderer. That bloodlust, that hatred and quest for power... it had to have always been there, just waiting for something to unleash it. I should have seen it earlier... I don't know why I'm ranting to you anyway. Just tell me where, Kojak, just point it out on the map and we'll go."

"Where do **you** want to go?" Kojak asked in a gravelly voice.

Strangely enough, in all the planning he had done over these years, Ash hadn't really given it much thought, certainly not enough thought to come up with a concrete plan. He hadn't been sure if Egon's influence had grown enough to allow him to track him down and kill him for what he'd done, and he wouldn't be allowed to live somewhere the Empire could find him and take him back to prison. There were so many potential worlds, though, so many people to meet and join up with.

"I don't know..." Ash admitted, "I... uh... I always thought Bespin was worth checking out." Ash thought out loud.

With a subtle nod, Kojak stood up, leading the way back to the ship's controls. At the helm of a vessel capable of taking them literally anywhere they wanted to go, it was useless without a destination, and Ash knew it. Sitting down in the two seats, now finally both in control of their own destinies, Ash was able to truly smile from the heart as he programmed the coordinates for Bespin into the navi-computer.

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked this story, it exists in the same canon as my other Star Wars stories. "Twice As Bright" shows Egon Tucker in his prime as a crime lord, "The Adept" touches more on the Kaleesh that was hinted at in Ash's conversation with Egon. This definitely isn't the last we've seen of Ash Ulrand and Art Regfeld, now known as Egon Tucker. I plan to make many more stories with these characters in the future!**


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